Disney Dumping Junk Food Ads

Disney has decided it's time for Mickey and friends to stop getting fat on junk food dollars. The company says it is phasing out ads and sponsorship for unhealthy food and drinks on its TV channels, radio stations, and websites. It will require products to meet minimum nutritional standards by 2015, reports USA Today. The move, which also applies to Saturday morning programming at ABC stations, will be announced at a press conference with Michelle Obama today. Disney says it is the first major media company to introduce standards for food advertising on child-oriented programming.

"Companies in a position to help with solutions to childhood obesity should do just that," Disney chairman Robert Iger says, adding: "This is not altruistic. This is about smart business." Disney's plan puts it "far ahead of competitors," the nutrition policy director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest tells the New York Times, although she would have liked to see Disney set its nutritional standards a little higher. "This limits the marketing of the worst junk foods, but it won’t mean you’re only going to see ads for apples, bananas, and oranges, either," she says. (More Disney stories.)