In the News: Queen Latifah Gets Another Talk Show; Yale Study Shows Beverage Industry Targets Minority Youth and More

Queen Latifah Gets Another Talk Show

You may remember Queen Latifah‘s self-titled talk show, The Queen Latifah Show, which ran in syndication for two seasons (1999-2001). Well, the rapper-turned-actress is giving it another try.

Sony Television Pictures said Monday that it will produce the untitled show alongside Flavor Unit Entertainment, the production company of Queen Latifah and Shakim Compere, and Overbrook Entertainment, the company of James Lassiter and Will Smith, according to the New York Times. In 1991, Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment gave the Cover Girl spokesmodel one of her earliest screen appearances on his popular sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Her new series is set to debut in the fall of 2013.

Read more at the New York Times…

Yale Study Shows Beverage Industry Targets Black and Hispanic Youth

A new study from Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity exposes beverage companies marketing sugary drinks to children, especially to black and Hispanic youth.

Black children and teens saw 80-to 90 % more ads compared with white youth, including more than twice as many for Sprite, 5-hour Energy, and Vitamin Water, according to the research. The targeting is very similar for the Hispanic demographic. Between 2008 and 2010, Hispanic children saw 49 % more ads for sugary drinks and energy drinks on Spanish-language TV. Hispanic teens saw 99 % more ads.

“The beverage industry needs to clean up their youth-directed products: reduce the added sugar, take out the artificial sweeteners, and stop marketing products high in caffeine and sugar to young people,” said Marlene Schwartz, co-author and deputy director of the Rudd Center. “We also need the nutrition facts, including caffeine content, for all beverages, especially energy drinks.”

The report’s authors studied marketing by 14 beverage companies and examined the nutritional quality of nearly 600 products including full-calorie soda, energy drinks, fruit drinks, flavored water, sports drinks, and iced teas, as well as diet energy drinks and diet children’s fruit drinks. The study is the most comprehensive and science-based assessment of sugary drink nutrition and marketing ever conducted.

To read the complete report, visit sugarydrinkfacts.org.

Brigitte Daniel of Wilco, Inc. Appointed to the FCC Committee on Diversity in the Digital Age

Executive Vice President of Wilco, Inc. Brigitte Daniel was appointed on Tuesday to the Federal Communications Commission’s re-charted Federal Advisory Committee on Diversity in the Digital Age.

As one of a few African-Americans appointed, Daniel will be charged with providing recommendations to the FCC regarding policies and practices that will further enhance diversity in the industries the agency regulates.

“I am very honored and excited about my appointment to serve on the FCC’s Diversity Committee,” said Daniel, a Philadelphia tech leader.  “The

topic of inclusion and diversity within this sector is paramount to providing opportunity, access, and a voice for all citizens of the United States. I look forward to representing the low-income marketplace that I proudly serve, broadening the scope of broadband access for the City of Philadelphia, and bettering the public interest of the American people and the missions of the FCC.”

Daniel currently serves as senior counselor to Wilco President Will F. Daniel. In addition, she handles corporate communications and oversees large-scale projects, including the launch and implementation of the new Wilco Philadelphia Housing Authority community and entertainment and web channel, WPHA-TV.