Food marketers are pioneers on the frontier of marketing, producing some of the most engaging and sophisticated advertising around. Too bad they are using such creativity to target kids with sugar, salt, fat and other junk.

The examples come so fast we can barely keep track of them (though we try at Digital Ads). Food marketers are enticing kids to eat unhealthy foods with flashy advergames, contests, and coupons sent directly to their cell phones. Even TV commercials tie into online “webisodes” and other engaging content that can absorb kids for hours on end. Add to that cartoon characters on packages, marketing in schools, and celebrity sponsorships, and there’s no place to hide from food marketing.

The situation has gotten so bad that in September, First Lady Michelle Obama called food marketers, media companies, and public health advocates to the White House to see how we might do something about the problem. I was thrilled to be there, not just because I got to meet the First Lady (I was smitten!), but also because food marketing is a daunting problem. It deserves the attention of the White House and policy makers in government, companies, and in homes across the nation.

Even the most vigilant parents can’t protect their kids from junk food marketing because it physically surrounds young people in their schools, their neighborhoods, in supermarkets and on their computers and smart phones. The Federal Trade Commission found that food marketers spend about $5 million every day making parents’ jobs harder by enticing kids with foods they should avoid. The marketing is increasingly digital: always on and personalized, with ads designed just for them. Kids are now friends with brands enabling companies to market to them and their social network each time they share with a friend online. For example, Coca Cola has nearly 75 million “likes” on Facebook – and this kind of marketing doesn’t cost the company much at all.

New research shows that tweens and teens are more susceptible to this sort of marketing than anyone suspected. Teen brains get “fired up” by engaging and immersive digital food ads in ways that fully developed adult brains don’t. This makes them especially vulnerable to junk food marketing, and we’re seeing the results in soaring diabetes rates.

It’s even worse for African-American, Latino, and other kids of color who suffer the highest rates of diabetes and other junk food-related diseases. These kids get what marketing professor Sonya Grier calls a “double dose” of junk food marketing. Not only are these kids targeted specifically, they’re also exposed to the same ads other children and youth are. African American youth see at least 50% more fast food ads than their white peers, nearly twice as many calories as white children see in fast food TV ads every day. It’s just as bad for Latino kids. For example, more than 84% of all foods and beverages advertised to children on Spanish-language TV are unhealthy.

At the White House, the First Lady reminded us that there has been progress. The Better Business Bureau’s Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative has encouraged companies to adhere to pledges to improve their marketing and some companies are moving in the right direction.

But there are some serious gaps. The pledges apply to kids 11 and younger, but because marketing acts on tween’ and teens’ developing brains, that age sets the bar too low. Older kids need protection too.

It’s also confusing when companies say they don’t market to kids when in fact children and youth are exposed to ads in so many ways. What this means is that companies don’t market on TV shows where kids 11 and under are a bulk of the audience. But they ignore the marketing millions of kids see otherwise – like when Coke advertises on the “family” program American Idol – but that marketing still has its effect on its young viewers.

And there are some companies that have a huge influence on what kids eat that have refused to join the effort in reducing marketing to kids. Viacom said no to calls for setting nutrition standards for the ads it airs on its children’s’ network, Nickelodeon. Same goes for national pizza chain Chuck E. Cheese, which markets directly to kids. The chain has gone so far as to create an app that uses “augmented reality” so kids could take their picture with the company’s mouse mascot and share it with friends. The campaign was even nominated for an award.The app has been downloaded more than 400,000 times and 120,000 photos have been shared.

Are these the kinds of marketing campaigns food companies should be proud of? Not if they care about kids.

Researchers examining the progress agree that it’s been too slow. Professor Dale Kunkel, a national expert on children and media, has said that if we continue at this rate, we won’t see the right balance of food ads until 2033. If you are a sixth-grader this year, you’ll be 31 in 2033, probably with kids of your own.

Food marketers shouldn’t make us wait that long.

This blog is a part of the MomsRising and CSPI #HealthyHalloween Blog Carnival