It's Come to This… Feds Subpoena Chuck E. Cheese
Posted by Jim Hoft on Thursday, September 2, 2010, 10:31 AM
Government Gone Wild–
The federal government subpoenaed Chuck E. Cheese this week. They suspect the company may be marketing their product to teens and children.
Ya think?
“Chuck E. Cheese: Where a Kid Can Be a Kid!”
The federal government has subpoenaed Chuck E. Cheese for marketing their product to children.
Advertising Age reported:
The Federal Trade Commission is once again handing out subpoenas to companies that market food to children and teens.
Three years after initially delivering what is technically known as “orders to file special report” to 44 marketers, the FTC last week began sending subpoenas to 48 companies in order to prepare a follow-up to its 120-page report issued in 2008, “Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities and Self-Regulation.”
“This is a follow-up to measure the effects that self-regulation has had over the last three years,” said Carol Jennings, spokeswoman for the FTC’s Division of Advertising Practices/Bureau of Consumer Protection. “We are supportive of industry voluntary efforts to limit their marketing to kids and this will see whether more is needed.”
Ms. Jennings said the findings will be made available to the public.
A handful of marketers that received subpoenas in 2007 were left off the 2010 list, presumably because they have limited their marketing to children. Twelve companies on this year’s list are new, but 36 companies are once again receiving subpoenas — including Yum Brands, which was called out by FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz in a December 2009 speech in which he said, “Many companies that market heavily to children and teens have yet to join or make a commitment. Why, for instance, hasn’t Yum Brands, with its KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut chains, stepped up? Or Chuck E. Cheese and IHOP? Or the marketers of Air Heads and Baby Bottle Pops?”
Calls to Yum Brands were not returned. A spokeswoman for CEC Entertainment, parent company of Chuck E. Cheese, said she could not comment without having seen the subpoena.
Here’s the list of companies:
MARKETERS RECEIVING 2010 FTC SUBPOENAS
(marketers in bold did not receive a similar subpoena in 2007)
- Boskovich Farms
- Burger King Holdings
- California Giant
- Campbell Soup Co.
- CEC Entertainment
- Chiquita Brands International
- The Coca-Cola Co.
- Coca-Cola Bottling Co.
- Coca-Cola Enterprises
- ConAgra Foods
- Dairy Management
- Danone Foods
- Del Monte Fresh Produce
- Doctor’s Associates
- Dole Food Co.
- Dr. Pepper Snapple Group
- Dunkin’ Brands
- General Mills
- Grimmway Enterprises
- Hansen Natural Corp.
- The Hershey Co.
- Hinkle Produce
- Hostess Brands
- Imagination Farms
- Kellogg Co.
- Kraft Foods
- LGS Specialty Sales
- Mars, Incorporated
- McDonald’s Corp.
- McKee Foods Corp.
- National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board
- Nestlé USA
- PepsiCo
- Perfetti Van Melle USA
- The Procter & Gamble Company
- Ralcorp Holdings
- Ready Pac Produce
- Red Bull North America
- Rockstar
- Sonic Corporation
- Stemilt Growers
- Summeripe Worldwide
- Sunkist Growers
- Sunny Delight Beverages Co.
- The Topps Co.
- Unilever United States
- Wendy’s/Arby’s Group
- Yum Brands
Hat Tip Annie
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Jim commented:
Do you like cardboard? You will now -
Formerly known as Skeptic commented:
***Del Monte Fresh Produce*** Egads! We can’t have anyone marketing fresh fruits and vegetables to children!
Dave-O commented:
And the economic “experts” within the Administration are stumped as to why there seems to be no hiring by private industry.
sliderblaze commented:
God these people are stupid, how about call in, oh i dont know, lets say, fannie mae and freddie mac come in and testify instead of …. food
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TXBitty commented:
The Obama administration markets their products to children and teens. Subpeona them.
neomom commented:
Is it November yet? I didn’t see the manufacturer of Soylent Green on that list. Didn’t they include a toy with the little green cake kids meals?
down with dems commented:
Obama promised you he’d fundamentally change America.
Too bad 52% of voters didn’t stop and ask HOW.
DINORight commented:
If this wasn’t real – and serious – it would be laughable! Chuck E. Cheese’s “an enemy of the state” because they serve pizza and drinks while kids play. Who is in charge of the FEC now? Clown – you have out-done yourself!!!
Really, it sounds like a pogrom against capitalist businesses – “ve must brink zem in liiiine, or zey vill be CRRRUSHEDD!” Veiled threats and intimidation under Michelle’s “Let’s Move” meddling umbrella. Jeesh!
Pure intimidation. Is Rep. Waxman involved in this intimidation and thuggery? Sadly, he is great at this – he reminds me of Goebbels: ready to “make an example” of “capitalist pigs” and use a “show trial” to reveal their eeeeeeeeeeevil capitalistic ways.
Transparency, indeed.
DINORight commented:
Oops. Should have read “FTC” not “FEC.”
Stuart commented:
And I hear that Miller High Life has been marketing their beer to adults… How dastardly!
BackwardsBoy commented:
Next on the list: Toys R Us.
Taqiyyotomist commented:
I don’t see Kevin Jennings on that list? Strange.
Bunni commented:
This is like a serial bad nightmare that never ends and seems straight out of bizarro world! That it’s true & what we’re stuck with now is awful.
All these awful grabs must be repealed after Nov.
NW Boiler commented:
Apparently, toy companies and the TV/movie/music industries must not be subject to the same marketing overlords as the food industry. Because, as we all know, marketing “Bratz” dolls to young girls is totally healthy, as opposed to evil pizza and fruit. Here’s a crazy idea, how about letting us parents deal with it.
Side note: I’m shocked to see Stemilt Growers on this list. As a Washingtonian, I’m familiar with Stemilt. Here is what they do, according to their web site:
“Stemilt Growers is a family-owned and operated tree fruit company based in Wenatchee, Washington. We specialize in growing, packing and marketing fresh apples, pears, cherries, and stone fruit, and are proud to be the leading shipper of sweet cherries and organic tree fruits in the nation.”
Stemilt has a history of pushing for more fresh fruit in children’s diets…it’s that darn capitalism thing. In fact, they have partnered with Sesame Street to feature Stemilt fruit with some of the characters. Maybe that’s the issue. Or, they successfully put down Teamster organizing attempts at their orchards and facilities. Naw…that wouldn’t be it. It must just be that marketing fruit to children is bad.
Gloria commented:
Stalin never died; he’s a bureaucrat in the FTC.
Kevin P commented:
DEFUND! DEFUND! DEFUND!!!
That has to be our new Rally cry after November!!!
GET OUT OF MY LIFE!!!
Leave Roger Clemens alone – who cares if he lied to you lieing bastards!?!?! He shouldn’t have been there in the first place because you have no right to involve yourselves!
Let a kid be a kid you freaking LIBERALS – you lousy Malthusian liberals!
Let a Free people be FREE!!!
DEFUND! DEFUND! DEFUND!!!
Betsy Ross commented:
They forgot:
Gerber
Fischer Price
Mattel
Huggies
Pampers
Osh Kosh B Gosh
Kevin P commented:
Sorry about throwing Roger Clemens in there – but sheesh – get out of EVERY aspect of our lives already!
And how about Disney World??? hmmmm – who are those dastardly demons marketing to???
(Actually Disney movies help push the Left’s ideaologies on young minds – so these tyrants will leave them alone)
newton commented:
“They forgot:
Gerber
Fischer Price
Mattel
Huggies
Pampers
Osh Kosh B Gosh”
Pillow Pets
Your Baby Can Read
newton commented:
There goes Nickelodeon! All that ad money down the drain!
gus commented:
Two thoughts.
Is this a CORE FUNCTION of the FEDERAL GOVT?
NO.
The same govt that gives CONDOMS to school children is suing Chuck E Cheese.
Sorry Jim, but this is getting way FUXING out of hand. There is going to be bloodshed if we don’t turn this around in 2 months.
seven commented:
Is this illegal? Is a child seeing a commercial written at a level he can understand kiddie porn?
They want to teach sex in kindergarten, I have a problem with that.
TXPatriot commented:
Does anyone have info on all of the Executive Orders Obama has signed since being in office? I heard about another one today that I’d read NOTHING about. Anyone have list or know where I could find one?
The Doctor Who Cures Cancer commented:
Where is the obligatory quote from Ronald McDonald?*
*Most people don’t realize it, but the FTC is probably the most despotic organization in the federal government.
nelli commented:
Investigations should be a private enterprise. The public would pay for it, if a private organization would fairly and thoroughly investigate anything they believed the public might want or need to know about it. They could publish their findings in, oh, say a newspaper or magazine or on a website. We could call them Journalists, or Investigative Reporters. Surely as professionals, they would do a better job than a bunch of politically motivated lawyers and beaurocrats. They would be good arbiters of what should be investigated and what should not, because they’d have to publish things that people would be interested in, or go out of business. They’d have to be unbiased, or eventually people would figure it out and stop paying for propaganda.
So maybe Congress should investigate why the pricey schools that call themselves schools of Journalism aren’t turning out many Journalists these days.
Betsy Ross commented:
gus #21:
‘xactly…can the federal govt sue the education dept for promoting sex education to 5 year olds? and for that matter to all children under the age of 18?
Mmmm…Mmmm…Mmmm…
Jane Lawson commented:
A lot of these companies give money to Democrats and so deserve every bit of the harm this does to their companies. Ye reap what ye sow.
Chris commented:
Perhaps these bureau-facists should look in the mirror.
Our gubmint’s policies (aside from the twisted legaleze designed to keep lawyers employed for life, interpreting it for gain) primarily pander to those whose mental faculties approximate the average elementary schooler.
These twist profer programs that are long on feelings and woefully short on reasoned, logically pursuasive arguments.
This is worthy of the Inspector Renault award for insightful investigative crime-solving, so shocked, simply shocked are they.
Freddy commented:
While the immigration enforcement agencies are claiming they simply do not have enough money to prosecute illegal aliens, the FTC has funding to support this useless witch hunt.
As we look for ways to trim the federal government budget, the FTC deserves to virtually have ALL of its funding CUT.
Matthew commented:
Where are Sony (Playstation), WII (NINTENDO), and MICROSOFT (XBOX)? They definitely market to children. They are like, oh, I voted for abortion, but since you were born, buy my product and die a slow death.
Ian Dispozed (@ImpeachTheIdiot) commented:
It’s not junk food. It’s not junk science. It’s junk politicians!!
marcia commented:
What? No Ben and Jerry’s?
notsurprised commented:
Why what an “unexpected” development.
One piece at a time our economy is being sliced to pieces.
death by a thousand cuts, and just wait until GWB tax cuts expire………..we ain’t seen NOTHING yet.
Van commented:
They are idiots, but they’re not fools. They’re only incidentally after Chuck E. Cheese, just as the Supreme Court decision which Judge Alito famously ‘No’d they are was only incidentally about a free speech.
What they are about is creeping ever closer to the proregressive elites being able to determine what you should do, and what you can’t do.
So you can measure up to what they think you should be.
They are simply practicing what their great grand pappy Rousseau, who said it very clearly himself. Behind his celebrated line
“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. ”
that appears under all the captions of his picture in your kids social studies textbooks, along with fawning assertions of what a friend to liberty he was, will be found, in the same essay,
“In order then that the social compact may not be an empty formula, it tacitly includes the undertaking, which alone can give force to the rest, that whoever refuses to obey the general will shall be compelled to do so by the whole body. This means nothing less than that he will be forced to be free; for this is the condition which, by giving each citizen to his country, secures him against all personal dependence. In this lies the key to the working of the political machine; this alone legitimises civil undertakings, which, without it, would be absurd, tyrannical, and liable to the most frightful abuses. ”
Anyone who wonders how we got from our Founding Fathers to the current crop of punks in Washington, doesn’t need to look much further than that. Rousseau set the Proregressive’s goal (anti-western civilization and in particular anti-family and anti-property), the method (the unapologetic use of force to mold an improved humanity in his own twisted image) and the means to do it (he is THE father of modern education… and fascism).
Don’t let yourself get distracted by Chuck E. Cheese, compact florescent light bulbs, or Net Neutrality – those are only incidental targets.
The bullseye is painted on you.
Say cheese!
Van commented:
(ooh… sorry for the wording… I shouldn’t try to debug computer code and stream of consciousness at the same time)
averagemelon commented:
Everything requires cooperation. Just remember that Lefties are nothing more than a small group of humans trying to muscle and hustle the bigger group of humans. NEVER FORGET THAT REALITY. We are still brushing them off like flies but sooner or later, they will force us to use the fly swatter.
Philo commented:
Van (#39): Exactly right. There’s a short path from Rousseau to the Gulag.
I wonder about the campaign contributions of the companies in bold. Maybe the difference between them and those not listed is that they didn’t pay enough tribute to the Democrats?
mark Smith commented:
The next thing we will have to have a disclainer on all products. Just like our elected officials “I did not read the bill”, what a joke this is. We are the biggest joke if we reelect these idiots!!!
Retro commented:
the start of obozo to cut off the food supply
Socratease commented:
These companies are guilty of infringing on a government monopoly. Only the government, through their government-run schools, are allowed to indoctrinate our children and influence their behavior.
A_Nonny_Mouse commented:
#39 Van September 2nd, 2010 | 4:07 pm
” … What they are about is creeping ever closer to the proregressive elites being able to determine what you should do, and what you can’t do. …”
===============
Hmmm. Interesting: that’s Mohammed’s method. He divided things up by what’s permitted (halal) and what’s forbidden (haram) under Islam. Maybe THAT’s why Progressives and Islamofascists get along so well…. control, control, it’s all about CONTROL, baby!
NW Boiler commented:
@TXPatriot #24 – Here is the url for the National Archives of Executive Orders. I think BO has signed 62.
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/disposition.html
Patriotic Warrior commented:
The tactics of this administration are nothing but a diversion…it takes a lot of your energy to get upset over the petty & idiotic things that they do that make absolutely NO sense! While you’re busy with this little “petty” stuff, much bigger stuff is happening right under our very own noses. So PATRIOTS….”Remember in November”….vote all of the bum out….Both Parties! Clean the Swamp….too bad we can’t start with BO!
Frank Frankson commented:
Not to mention that schools are serving high-calorie, high-fat, high-salt meals under government guidelines while NCLB takes away recess.
Simon commented:
I hope Chuck E. Cheese does a song about it, teaching kids about Jackasses and what they do to good times, good food, good countries.
how pilgrim commented:
Yes, the next subpoena will be going out to Disney for marketing to teens and children. What is this world coming to?
dcgirl commented:
Yes, we can’t have anything advertised to children. After all, their parents might have to say no!