More than 90,000 schools in the U.S. have participated in the Box Tops for Education program—one of the largest school-based brand marketing initiatives. The program was launched by General Mills in 1996, and participating schools can earn money by collecting Box Tops from select products. While eligible goods include paperware and office supplies, Box Tops are featured on a wide array of packaged foods and beverages. Because these products are not actually sold in schools, they're not subject to federal nutrition standards. But if they were, how would they stack up nutritionally? New research from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and MassGeneral Hospital for Children finds that less than a third of the products would meet federal "Smart Snacks" standards. In this week's episode we speak with Elsie Taveras, Division Chief of General Academic Pediatrics at MassGeneral Hospital for Children and professor of nutrition at the Harvard Chan School, and Alyssa Moran, a doctoral student at the Harvard Chan School. They'll explain why the Box Tops program may be driving parents and children to make unhealthy food choices—and unwittingly turns kids into brand ambassadors for these products.

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