Malia and Sasha Obama Spotlighted by School-Lunch Ad Campaign

Advertisers have tried to use the Obama family to sell everything from dolls to sweaters, and now a group is hoping that an ad singling out the president's 8- and 11-year-old daughters will sway the debate on the school lunch program.

Politico reports that the new ad -- placed in Washington's Union Station by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine -- appeals directly to the first family. It pictures a young girl saying, "President Obama's daughters get healthy school lunches. Why don't I?" The child in the ad, 8-year-old Jasmine Messiah, also wrote the Obama daughters an open letter, asking them to sign a petition for increased vegetarian lunch options.


The Child Nutrition Act, which funds the federal school lunch program, is up for reauthorization this year, and activists have called for a funding increase, a revisiting of nutritional standards and a switch from the pre-packaged meals most cafeterias serve to fresh foods prepared in-house.

Childhood obesity is an issue being called out by both Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and former president Bill Clinton as raising the rate of Type II diabetes and potentially shortening the life spans of an entire generation. The million-dollar question is whether school lunches impact obesity. The answer, according to the USDA, is not clear, with one study saying that participation in school lunch programs had no affect on obesity and another saying that obesity was slightly higher among participants. What is clear, though, is the nutrition provided by school lunches: One study showed high levels of fat and sodium in the food served.