Shrek Is an Accomplice in Junk Food Marketing

Food companies, already under attack for making kids fat, have accomplices in Shrek, Dora the Explorer and Scooby Doo, a new study finds.

Licensed cartoon celebrities not only appeal to children - the kids actually think junk foods hocked by popular characters taste better, researchers find.

This study surely opens a new conversation about food company marketing practices. The researchers, funded by Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, say the use of these characters should be limited because they're largely used for bad-for-you foods like M&Ms and Cheetos. Attempts to use cartoon characters to push healthy foods fell flat in recent years.

"Even with some industry-initiated efforts and the appearance of some characters on high-nutrient, low-energy products, the vast majority of the licensing market still involves junk foods," the study says.

Companies, including McDonald's Corp., Mars Inc. and PepsiCo, spend more than $200 million a year on licensing characters and cross promotions, the Rudd researchers found. That practice needs to change, they say.

"More than advocating the use of licensed characters for healthy foods, our findings point to the need to regulate and curtail the use of this marketing approach," the researchers write.

A national campaign by Michelle Obama to curb childhood obesity attacks the way food makers market their products. Look out Shrek.