Last week we cheered the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for challenging the makers of quack weight loss supplements for children.
This week, the FTC's chairman deserves another honorable mention, this time, for standing up to the Center for Science and the Public Interest and its allies who seek to ban television commercials for "junk food" directed at children.
In an op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal, FTC Chairman Timothy Muris makes the apt analogy, "The FTC's experience with proposals like this one shows that advertising bans are like the 'quick-fix' weight-loss products we challenge: appealing on the surface, but ultimately useless."
Obesity is a serious problem in this country. We need serious, science-driven approaches to deal with it. The activists want to ban not only the ads, but sometimes the products themselves!
Gimmicks such as supersized hyberbole and outragous lawsuits are not the way to go.
