New York State Legislature Assembly Program and Committee Staff Office of Research and Analysis Correspondence and Subject…

Alphabetical by topic.

During the 1970's, there was a growing awareness in the country that many Americans did not receive a nutritionally balanced diet. This was caused not by lack of food but rather from an overabundance of food and the inability or unwillingness to choose a nutritious diet. A major part of this so called "malnutrition of affluence" was the extremely high intake of sugared and processed foods, especially among children.

Many experts were blaming television advertising for influencing the food choices of young children. Federal and some state governments were beginning to take steps to gain more control of the content of television advertising as response to this growing public health problem.

This series contains information relating to the government interest in television advertising. The series contains records from the Assembly Program and Committee staff's Office of Research and Analysis. This office investigated possible New York legislation to regulate television commercials for food products aimed at young children.

On behalf of the Assembly, this Office collected information from a wide range of experts and other interested individuals and groups, sponsored public hearings and a major symposium, and issued a report with recommendations for action.

The Office had contact with a wide range of individuals and groups interested in health, nutrition and advertising. These included state legislators and agency officials in New York and other states, federal officials including staff from the Federal Communications Commission, nutrition researchers, food companies especially those producing cereals and candy, television and advertising industry representatives, and consumer and public interest groups.

The series includes material either produced or collected by the Office including hearing and symposium testimony, published and unpublished reports, correspondence, clippings, draft legislation and memorandum in support of legislation, handwritten notes, and press releases. The material gathered from advertisers includes transcripts and story boards of television commercials and several small reels of 16 mm film containing examples of commercials for children's food products.

Among the topics included in the records are: the nutritional content of foods and the negative effects of sugar and processed foods on health; the impact of television commercials on the eating habits of children; examples of television commercials aimed at young children; the effectiveness of public service announcements in providing sound health messages to children and the rationale for taxing advertisers to fund these messages; the absence of Federal guidelines regulating television advertising and examples of legislation in other states; and existing food labeling regulations.

The series includes a summary of testimony from the 1976 hearings on children's television held by the Assembly Task Force on Farm and Food Policy. The records also include the results of this Task Force's 1976 project that monitored the content of commercials during children's television programming. The records also contain a copy of the Office of Research and Analysis' final report, Kids, Foods, and Television: the Compelling Case for State Action (March 1977). This report calls for additional guidelines for regulating the content of commercials aimed at children and recommends expanded use of public service announcements to counter unhealthy advertising.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of this material.