By Mike Hughlett | Kraft Foods Inc. scored relatively high while McDonald’s Corp. got a
more mediocre mark in a “report card” on food marketing to children
released Tuesday by a watchdog group.

But at least neither of those two Chicago-area companies got the grade
of Downers Grove-based Sara Lee Corp. and most other companies included
in the report: “F.”

The Washington D.C.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest analyzed 128 food and entertainment companies, evaluating the strength of their nutrition standards for food marketed to children and the thoroughness of their child marketing policies.

No company received an “A.” The highest score was a “B+” won by Mars Inc., the candy maker that owns Chicago-based Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. Northfield-based Kraft was one of six companies that got a “B-,” while Oak Brook-based McDonald’s was one of six graded with a “C-.”

McDonald’s, in a statement, noted that since 2006 it’s been a part of the Council for Better Business Bureau’s voluntary initiative to promote healthier advertising to children. The company said it supports that effort’s “significant accomplishment” of defining common advertising criteria for the food industry.

Kraft and about dozen other companies are also part of that Better Business Bureau effort. Kraft, not surprisingly, was happy with its relatively good grade. “We’re delighted to see our efforts being recognized,” it said in a statement. “Over the years we have taken a number of voluntary steps to respond to concerns around marketing to children.”

Two-thirds of the companies analyzed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest did not have a policy for food marketing to children, earning them an automatic “F.” Sara Lee fell into that category.

“Sara Lee is currently updating its policy on marketing to children,” the company said in a statement. “We carefully consider the voluntary national advertising guidelines set by the Children’s Advertising Review Unit.” That group is an arm of the ad industry’s self-regulation program.

Mars won its “B+” partly because it was one of nine companies analyzed that didn’t allow advertising to children under the age of 12. Also, Mars’ child marketing policy more thoroughly covered different types of media, the report said.

The report found that child marketing policies were weakest when it came to covering digital media and on-package and in-store marketing to children.

Concern over food companies’ marketing tactics has grown in recent years, as the number of obese children continues to grow.

In response to the Center for Science and the Public Interest’s report, the trade group for packaged food makers said that children are seeing fewer food, beverage and restaurant ads on television.

Between 2004 and 2008, such ads during children’s programming fell 31 percent, according to the Grocery Manufacturers Association, citing a study by Georgetown Economic Services. Meanwhile, ads for soups, fruits and vegetables rose dramatically, the association said.