It's Come to This... Feds Subpeona Chuck E. Cheese

It's Come to This... Feds Subpeona Chuck E. Cheese

Posted by Jim Hoft on Thursday, September 2, 2010, 10:31 AM
Government Gone Wild–The federal government subpoenaed Chuck E. Cheese this week. They suspect the company may be marketing their product to teens and children.Ya think?


“Chuck E. Cheese: Where a Kid Can Be a Kid!”
The federal government has subpoenaed Chuck E. Cheese for marketing their product to children.Advertising Age reported:

The Federal Trade Commission is once again handing out subpoenas to companies
that market food to children and teens.
Three years after initially
delivering what is technically known as “orders to file special report” to 44
marketers, the FTC last week began sending subpoenas to 48 companies in order to
prepare a follow-up to its 120-page report issued in 2008, “Marketing Food to
Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities and
Self-Regulation.”
“This is a follow-up to measure the effects that
self-regulation has had over the last three years,” said Carol Jennings,
spokeswoman for the FTC’s Division of Advertising Practices/Bureau of Consumer
Protection. “We are supportive of industry voluntary efforts to limit their
marketing to kids and this will see whether more is needed.”
Ms. Jennings
said the findings will be made available to the public.
A handful of
marketers that received subpoenas in 2007 were left off the 2010 list,
presumably because they have limited their marketing to children. Twelve
companies on this year’s list are new, but 36 companies are once again receiving
subpoenas — including Yum Brands, which was called out by FTC Chairman Jon
Leibowitz in a December 2009 speech in which he said, “Many companies that
market heavily to children and teens have yet to join or make a commitment. Why,
for instance, hasn’t Yum Brands, with its KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut chains,
stepped up? Or Chuck E. Cheese and IHOP? Or the marketers of Air Heads and Baby
Bottle Pops?”
Calls to Yum Brands were not returned. A spokeswoman for CEC
Entertainment, parent company of Chuck E. Cheese, said she could not comment
without having seen the subpoena.

Here’s the list of companies:
MARKETERS RECEIVING 2010 FTC SUBPOENAS
(marketers in bold did not receive a similar subpoena in 2007)

1. Boskovich Farms


2. Burger King Holdings


3. California Giant


4. Campbell Soup Co.


5. CEC Entertainment


6. Chiquita Brands International


7. The Coca-Cola Co.


8. Coca-Cola Bottling Co.


9. Coca-Cola Enterprises


10. ConAgra Foods


11. Dairy Management


12. Danone Foods


13. Del Monte Fresh Produce


14. Doctor’s Associates


15. Dole Food Co.


16. Dr. Pepper Snapple Group


17. Dunkin’ Brands


18. General Mills


19. Grimmway Enterprises


20. Hansen Natural Corp.


21. The Hershey Co.


22. Hinkle Produce


23. Hostess Brands


24. Imagination Farms


25. Kellogg Co.


26. Kraft Foods


27. LGS Specialty Sales


28. Mars, Incorporated


29. McDonald’s Corp.


30. McKee Foods Corp.


31. National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board


32. Nestlé USA


33. PepsiCo


34. Perfetti Van Melle USA


35. The Procter & Gamble Company


36. Ralcorp Holdings


37. Ready Pac Produce


38. Red Bull North America


39. Rockstar


40. Sonic Corporation


41. Stemilt Growers


42. Summeripe Worldwide


43. Sunkist Growers


44. Sunny Delight Beverages Co.


45. The Topps Co.


46. Unilever United States


47. Wendy’s/Arby’s Group


48. Yum Brands