CCFC Asks Niantic Not to Market Starbucks to Kids Playing Pokemon Go

Pokemon Go-creator Niantic is commercially exploiting children and marketing junk food with last week's announcement that 7,800 Starbucks stores in the U.S. will be locations for the popular augmented reality mobile game, said Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood in a Tuesday news release. “It’s wrong to lure children to a sponsor’s location under the guise of playing a game,” said CCFC Executive Director Josh Golin. “Niantic and Starbucks should exclude children from this sneaky marketing designed to hook players on sugar-saturated, high calorie drinks.” CCFC sent a letter with a petition signed by 7,300 people to Niantic CEO John Hanke, asking the company not to direct any advertising tied to paid sponsorships to kids under 13. Golin said kids are more vulnerable than adults to ads and it's "wrong to use an extremely popular game to surreptitiously market Starbucks' sugar-laden high-calorie drinks, many of which are high in caffeine, to children." Golin previously told us children under 13 are unable to distinguish a marketing deal with playing the game and said it could amount to a case of unfair and deceptive marketing (see 1607250009). Sprint recently announced a partnership with Niantic that would make the telco's 10,500 locations part of the game (see 1612070017). Niantic "does not show sponsored locations to players under the age of 13 in Pokémon GO," it emailed. "Players under the age of 13 must have their parent's permission to play through the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) compliant verification and consent process handled by The Pokémon Company through the Pokémon Trainer Club."