Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The Oreo Episode of 7th Heaven

Can't say I've ever watched the show, but thanks to a post by Parke Wilde on his wonderful blog US Food Policy, I'm pretty sure I don't want to.

His post was about their 218th episode entitled, "Secrets" - an episode whose entire premise is that eating cookies leads people to tell each other their secrets. The thing is, it's not just any cookie that loosens lips, it's specific to Oreos due to presumably paid product placement.

I've included Parke's clip below, along with one other, but some background before you watch the clips.

Oreos are owned by Kraft.

Kraft is one of those corporations who have managed to appease critics and politicians by crafting their own voluntary guidelines regarding targeting children with junk food advertising.

They pledged not to target children back in January 2005 and specifically made mention to Oreos.

So when was that 7th Heaven episode aired?

April 17th, 2006.

Of course Kraft will say that 7th Heaven is a "family" show and therefore they're not exclusively targeting kids. Gee thanks Kraft.

The FCC is investigating but of course without any regulatory teeth, I'm not sure what they expect to be able to do.

Still think "voluntary" is a good idea?