Recap: Predatory Marketing Briefing

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On March 12th CFF partnered with New York Health Foundation to host a briefing titled Taking Power Back: Food Policies to Curb Predatory Marketing in New York.

The session focused on predatory marketing and counter-marketing efforts here in our region. We heard from researchers, advocates, and funders about how policy can be used to combat aggressive tactics from the food industry, and what it takes to win these policy goals.

Julia McCarthy of New York Health Foundation, one of the event’s co-sponsors and a supporter of this work, was the host of the meeting and opened with an explanation of how these efforts fit into the overall nutrition policy funding strategy of her foundation.

Then Dr. Omni Cassidy from NYU Grossman School of Medicine gave an overview and explanation of predatory marketing. Using her own personal story, and data from her research, Dr. Cassidy demonstrated how food industry advertising is specifically tailored to and designed to exploit power imbalances along racial, class, age, and gender lines.

From there we heard from Robert Pezzolesi, founding Convener of the Interfaith Public Health Network, and what groups in our region are doing to counter this predatory marketing. He highlighted the advocacy efforts that led to passage of NYC’s Sweet Truth Act, regulating how restaurants display added sugar, and the diverse coalition including faith-based groups that were involved. He then shared an overview of the Predatory Marketing Prevention Act (PMPA), a bill to restrict junk food ads aimed at kids that is currently making its way through New York state government.

Next up was Shen’naque Sean Butler, founder of FRESCH Food Bronx Health Initiative and one of the grassroots activists involved in the coalition. Sean told the story of how he personally got energized to fight for healthy food access after his mother’s passing, and how he connects the work of policy change with his local efforts to increase healthy food offerings in local bodegas.

Our final speaker was DeAnna Nara, a policy lead at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). CSPI runs a national regranting initiative that funds this effort and others like it supporting community action, providing opportunities for cross-pollination across the country, and building the evidence base to improve public health. She highlighted the coalition involved with the Sweet Truth Act calling it the first community-led victory of its kind in the US, and emphasizing that we need all the pieces working together (community engagement, research, legal support, generational power, etc.) to succeed.

The session closed with a moderated panel discussion followed by questions from the audience.

The slides used are visible in the video below, but you can also download the presentations from NYU, IPHN, FRESCH, and CSPI, as well as the speaker bios. See below for additional resources mentioned and shared as part of this meeting.

The following time markers can be used to jump around to different sections of the video:

  • Start: Welcome and intro by Adam Liebowitz, CFF Director
  • 2:15 – Funder intro by Julia McCarthy, New York Health Foundation
  • 5:35 – Predatory Marketing 101 by Dr. Omni Cassidy, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
  • 18:20 – NY coalition work by Robert Pezzolesi, Interfaith Public Health Network
  • 30:35 – Local grassroots efforts with Shen’naque Sean Butler, FRESCH Food Bronx Health Initiative
  • 35:55 – National perspective from DeAnna Nara, CSPI.
  • 1:00:01 – Q&A

Resources

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