Cartoon Network to Adopt New Food & Beverage-Related Guidelines and New Healthy Lifestyle Programming Pledge for Kids

ATLANTA-- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- To reflect its ongoing commitment to promote lifetime health and wellness for children and families, Cartoon Network today announced newly formalized food & beverage-related guidelines addressing use of its licensed characters and a pledge to develop new programming integrating positive messages regarding nutrition and activity. These newly-adopted guidelines, developed primarily from nutritional standards for children for food in schools issued by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, and in consultation with nutritional experts, Bonnie Taub-Dix, MA, RD, CDN (National Spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association) and Joanne Ikeda, MA, RD (pediatric obesity researcher, Nutritionist Emeritus at U.C. Berkeley), will govern the network’s character product licensing and custom brand-integrated promotional tie-ins that Cartoon Network may conduct with advertisers on-air, online, and on-pack.

Under its new policies, Cartoon Network will limit the use of its original characters related to its company-owned original series targeted to children under the age of 12 to food and beverage products that meet specific nutritional criteria. The nutritional criteria will include a cap on total calories per appropriate serving with limits on total fat, saturated fat, added trans fat, sodium and sugar and a requirement encouraging recommended nutrients such as vitamin A and C, iron, calcium, protein, and fiber (see attached chart). The Guidelines will apply in the United States to all new product licensing and promotional tie-in deals and to renewals of any existing deals starting January 1, 2008. The only exception will be for the licensing of special occasion sweets.

Cartoon Network is also working with its nutritional experts to develop creative new programming that will integrate messages regarding nutrition and activity across platforms to positively influence, educate and encourage families to adopt balanced and healthy lifestyles. This pledge builds on Cartoon Network’s extensive variety of Get Animated outreach programs and multi-platform promotions aimed at reaching children with healthy lifestyle messages with targeted public-private partnerships, public service campaigns, online education, and off-channel activities and special events, which the network will continue to deliver.

“Cartoon Network believes in a fully comprehensive approach to promoting overall child health,” said Stuart Snyder, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Turner’s Animation, Young Adults & Kids Media group. “Our strategy is to approach these current health issues on all fronts by carefully guiding our licensed character branding, developing new entertainment programming and interstitials to help teach recommended dietary practices, and promoting multiple off-channel partnerships that will inspire kids to develop a more active lifestyle.”

Snyder continued, “We will continue to work with and support our food and beverage partners, who as an industry are committed to the highest standards for responsible marketing to children, and who are making great strides in reformulating products and committing to shift the mix of messages in advertising to encourage healthier dietary choices and healthy lifestyles.”

“What sets Cartoon Network’s nutritional guidelines apart is that they are based on scientific research proven to be effective,” says Taub-Dix. “By embracing the IOM standards for schools and the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, the network has adopted an approach that will effectively complement the dietary lessons kids are also learning in schools today. This united effort can actually help kids serve as ‘dietary role models’ for siblings, parents and care-givers in the home. Moreover, Cartoon Network has already been championing the effort to help kids manage their diet by learning to read and understand packaged food labels through its partnership with the FDA on ‘Spot the Block’ and is planning some exciting programming. So the official guidelines announced today essentially reinforce and underscore the efforts the network has been involved with for some time.”

“I’m particularly excited that Cartoon Network will seek to further integrate messages about healthy living into its new programming, where characters can help demonstrate positive behaviors for kids to pick up on,” said Ikeda. “As a nutritionist, it’s really thrilling to have the opportunity to work with wildly creative and talented artists who can help transform what kids often see as traditionally dull facts and figures into fun and appealing life lessons. The goal, of course, will be to change kids’ attitudes so that they will want to try new, more nutritious foods and engage in regular physical activity.”

About Get Animated

GET ANIMATED (www.GetAnimated.com) is Cartoon Network’s on-going campaign that inspires and empowers kids to get healthy, active and involved. The campaign has developed and fostered a number of national on-air, on-print, on-line and off-channel programs with strategic partnerships and key non-profit organizations. Programs include: SPOT THE BLOCK, a partnership with the Food and Drug Administration that promotes awareness on how to read nutritional labels and make healthy food choices; KIDS IN THE KITCHEN, with the Association of Junior Leagues, which gives kids the tools to learn how to cook alongside their parents healthier meals; RESCUING RECESS, the award-winning campaign developed to help provide tools and resources to bring back or keep recess in local schools for daily exercise; and GET ANIMATED WITH ANNA KOURNIKOVA, a DVD exercise program in partnership with Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) featuring Kournikova and Cartoon Network original characters, distributed to more than 4,000 BGCA clubs.

About Cartoon Network

Cartoon Network (CartoonNetwork.com), currently seen in more than 91 million U.S. homes and 160 countries around the world, is Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.’s ad-supported cable service offering the best in original, acquired and classic animated entertainment for kids and families. Overnight from 10:30 p.m.-6 a.m. (ET, PT), Cartoon Network shares its channel space with Adult Swim, a late-night destination showcasing original and acquired animation for young adults 18-34.

Cartoon Network Nutritional Criteria

For Use of Characters For Licensed Products and Promotional Tie-Ins^D

Items Calories Fat Saturated

Fat

Trans Fat Sodium Sugar Side

Dish^A

Single

Servings

≤ 200 calories

≤ 35% of the calories

≤ 10% of the calories

0 (less than or equal to 0.5 g per serving)

≤ 200 mg

≤ 35% of the calories^B

Main Dish^A

Single Servings

≤ 270 – 360 calories

≤ 35% of the calories

≤ 10% of the calories

0

≤ 600 mg

≤ 35% of the calories

Snacks^A

Single Serving

≤ 200 calories

≤ 35% of the calories

≤ 10% of the calories

0

≤ 200 mg

≤ 35% of the calories^B

Meals^A

≤ 600 calories

≤ 35% of the calories

≤ 10% of the calories

0

≤ 800 mg

≤ 35% of the calories

Beverages^AC

8oz serving

≤ 200 calories

≤ 35% of the calories

≤ 10% of the calories

0

≤ 200mg

≤ 22g ^B

^A In addition, items in these categories must also provide at least 10 percent of one or more of vitamins A or C, iron, calcium, protein, or fiber.

^B A limited exception may be made for yogurt with no more than 30 g of total sugars, per 8-oz. portion as packaged.

^C Beverages may include water without flavoring, additives, or carbonation, low-fat and nonfat milk including lactose-free and soy beverages and flavored milk, and beverages that do not contain carbonation or caffeine with the exception of trace amounts of naturally occurring caffeine substances.

^D A limited exception may be made for Licensed Products for special occasion foods.

Cartoon Network

James Anderson, 404-885-4205

james.anderson@turner.com