Greedy Trial Lawyer
Will The Defendant SpongeBob SquarePaints Please Stand
Category: The Latest Baddest
The case may sound silly, but it's not. SpongeBob SquarePants is being hauled into court in Massachusetts. His crime? Exploiting young children and contributing to escalating rates of obesity and diabetes. How can a cartoon character be guilty of such things? By corporate marketing run amok.
These are the words of Michele Simon posted on the blog of Chef Ann Cooper who bills herself as a renegade lunch lady who works to transform cafeterias into culinary classrooms for students -- one school lunch at a time. She brings you information to learn about the importance of changing the way America feeds its children.
The Simon article explains why this lawsuit is anything but "frivolous." This is a lawsuit whose time has come. With every other legal avenue closed to protect children, suing the worse offenders is the last resort.
Children's advocates have been fighting for 30 years to get companies to stop exploiting kids, to no avail. It has become painfully clear that consumer groups' calls for government action are now falling of deaf ears. As a result, CSPI and CCFC are turning to litigation as the only remaining remedy available.And who can blame them? When the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Health and Human Services held a "workshop" last summer on childhood obesity and food marketing, the result was a massive public relations opportunity for junk food companies. Six months later, the agencies have yet to release a promised report on the proceedings, let alone promulgate regulations to actually address the problem. Similarly, Congress has taken no action.
And all the while food companies claim to be "part of the solution" when it comes to childhood obesity. But industry's version of solving the problem means no government tinkering with profit-making. Rather, industry favors "self-regulation," which translates to the fox guarding the henhouse. The Children's Advertising Review Unit, industry's self-appointed and corporate-funded regulatory body has failed miserably. As Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa -- one of few champions for children left in Congress -- has noted: "CARU, frankly, has become a poster child for how not to conduct self-regulation."
When all the other legal avenues have failed: government regulation, legislation, and industry self-regulation, that leaves one remaining option -- litigation.
And yet, this case is bound to suffer the slings and arrows of those who would label any lawsuit aimed at industry for contributing to obesity as "frivolous," the right wing's favorite moniker for any case aimed at curbing corporate excesses. But this case and others like it sure to follow are not about blaming any one company for making people fat. They are about getting irresponsible food and media corporations to stop using deceptive marketing practices to lure vulnerable children into a lifetime of destructive eating habits.
If both science and common sense tell us that it's inherently deceptive to market to young children, then it should stop. This is a lawsuit whose time has come. With every other legal avenue closed to protect children, suing the worse offenders is the last resort. Let's hope this door doesn't slam shut too. Children deserve better.
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Comments
Greedy Trial Lawyer, I enjoy your blawg and find myself agreeing with you most of the time (a very disconcerting thing for someone like myself who enjoys disagreement and strife). But really now, what the hell ever happened to mom and dad saying, "no, you can't eat that crap" and "turn off the damn TV!" That would seem to be a much easier and more effective solution. It would be great if the defendants in this case raised the affirmative defense of "negligent parenting," because that's essentially what this boils down to--the said-same liberal attitudes that have produced this lawsuit are the same ones that reject any notion of parental discipline. Better yet, I'd like to see some morbidly obese and/or diabetic children sue their parents for feeding them the crap that harms their health.
Posted by: Dave at February 16, 2006 04:25 PM