Ten major brands have committed to strengthening the self-regulatory guidelines they operated under when marketing to children.

The work is being done in partnership with the Council of Better Business Bureaus and the National Advertising Review Council. The guidelines apply to advertising directed towards kids under 12.

Brands include Coca-Cola Co., Campbell Soup Co., McDonald's, Kraft Foods, Inc., Cadbury Schweppes, General Mills, Hershey's, Kellogg, PepsiCo and Unilever.

"We support this self- regulatory approach and the significant accomplishment of defining a common criteria around which the industry can work," said Bill Lamar, CMO, McDonald's USA, in a statement.

The initiative, called the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, will launch in six to nine months and calls for the participating companies to adhere to five principles:

• Devote at least 50% of ads to promote healthier dietary choices
• Limit products shown in interactive games to healthier dietary choices, or incorporate healthy lifestyle messages into the games.
• Not advertise food or beverage products in elementary schools.
• Not engage in food and beverage product placement in editorial and entertainment content.
• Reduce the use of third-party licensed characters in advertising that does not meet the initiative's product or messaging criteria.

C. Lee Peeler, executive VP-advertising self-regulation for CBBB, will lead the initiative. Compliance will be monitored and posted at the online at a site to be determined.

Over the years, advocates for children, parents and politicians have criticized food and beverage companies for targeting kids with ads for unhealthy foods. As a result, marketers have faced mounting pressure to curb tactics aimed at children.

In a separate development, the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU), has also approved revisions to its self regulatory guidelines for children's advertising. The guidelines have been expanded to:

• tauthorize CARU to take action on advertising targeted to children that is misleading.
• address ads that obscures the line between editorial content and advertising messages.
• address commercial messages used in interactive games, sometimes referred to as advergaming.

A copy of the revised CARU guidelines can be accessed at CARU.org.

Both initiatives evolved from an in-depth review of the regulatory guidelines undertaken by NARC and led by Joan Z. Bernstein, a former director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

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