State Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, is pictured debating legislation on the Senate floor last week.

Legislation is on its way to the state Assembly that could bring major changes to the way food is advertised.

State senators last week approved S.213B by a 45-13 vote with state Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, voting against. The bill was approved at the end of the 2023 legislative session but died in the state Assembly.

Sen. Zellnor Myrie, D-Brooklyn, said in his legislative justification that the bill is aimed at reducing childhood obesity by requiring courts to give special consideration to advertising directed at children when determining a violation of the proposed law and requiring courts to consider whether an advertisement is targeted toward children when deciding if advertising is false. The legislation would give citizens the right to sue advertising companies to recover damages, which could range from $10,000 to three times the actual cost of damages for the plaintiff.

“To do this broad, sweeping bill that is going to negatively impact the ability for anybody to advertise a product which is going to really, I think, open themselves up to frivolous lawsuits and so forth, I just think it’s far too broad,” Borrello said. “The intent is good but I think that the solution here is just far too onerous.”

The legislation also allows regulators to target specific food-related industries for implementation of the Childhood Obesity Prevention Program (COPP). The program would include, among other things, education on access and the

nutritional value of locally grown foods by cooperating with the state Agriculture and Markets department to add access to locally grown food.

Borrello specifically asked Myrie about whether or not the McDonald’s Happy Meal would be allowed under Myrie’s proposal. Myrie said the bill isn’t as simple as simply listing which activities are or aren’t allowed. The entire process will be decided by judges – with help from the state Legislature if Myrie’s bill passes the Assembly before the end of the legislative session in June and if Gov. Kathy Hochul signs the legislation.

“It would be one of the factors that the court would consider,” Myrie said. “I want to underscore that point because this does not speak to advertising generally. It speaks to targeted advertising to inherently vulnerable audiences. In determining whether or not that audience is inherently vulnerable we have outlined some things in this bill that the court could look at.”

Borrello noted a bipartisan news conference held earlier in the day as a better way to address Myrie’s concerns about childhood obesity. Senators from both parties attended the news conference hosted by Sen. Monica Martinez, D-Hauppauge, attempting to draw attention to legislation Martinez drafted to ban vaping products that are designed to look like school supplies or toys. As The Post-Journal reported in February, examples of new vaping and e-cigarette packaging include products designed to resemble cartoon, movie or video game characters, toys and electronic devices and school supplies including markers, highlighters, ballpoint pens and thumb drives.

“This morning we did a press conference with Senator Martinez about vaping devices that were in the shape of school supplies and toys. That’s pretty clear,” Borrello said. “That’s a pretty clear, egregious violation where we’re trying to appeal to children. So we have a law, we have a bill, that’s sitting in the health committee that would outlaw and increase the fines for those vapes that are in the shape of toys. So we have a way to address this. We can do things like that. We can say if you’re going to do something that’s clearly targeting children with something they clearly should not have this is how we’re going to address it.”