Eye On Marketers

Citing the "stressful" nature of the holiday season, KFC has unveiled the Festive Feast, a family meal deal. The company touts the promotion as an attempt to "offer families a moment of escape from the frenzy of the holiday season and allow them to simply spend time with one another."

Due to the food industry's inadequate self-regulatory initiatives, Australian children are increasingly bombarded with "'subtle and insidious" advertisements for unhealthy food, disguised as mobile phone app games and social media competitions. Because the "line between entertainment and advertising is increasingly blurred," health advocates, including consumer group Choice, are calling for stronger regulations on social media, comparable to those that control tobacco advertising.

While describing Big Food's critics as "scolding" extremists and prohibitionists, The Economist applauds the food industry's self-regulatory efforts, despite evidence from researchers at Yale's Rudd Center and elsewhere that these loose standards actually help the food industry target children.

The philanthropic foundation of the National Restaurant Association has announced that Philadelphia will be the latest state to join ProStart, a corporate social responsibility initiative that trains high school students to work in the industry.