Nickelodeon Stops Licensing Characters

SpongeBob SquarePants will have to go back to his day job of entertaining children in his cartoon instead of appearing on junk food labels. Nickelodeon will stop allowing its characters to be licensed out to promote junk food.

Dora the Explorer, the Rugrats and Jimmy Neutron are all a part of Nickelodeon's self-imposed ban. You'll still see these characters for the next couple of years, though. The changes won't go into effect until 2009, when the current licensing deals expire.

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Nickelodeon's announcement arrives on the heels of 11 food and beverage companies announcing they would stop marketing junk food to children. However, Nickelodeon said it would still allow its characters to be used for Valentine's Day and Halloween food promotions.