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The discontent culminated in 1978 with the proposal of the “kidvid” rule — later abandoned — which would have prohibited certain TV commercials that marketed sugary foods to children.

In an interview, Robert Reich, who worked under Mr. Pertschuk at the FTC and later served as labor secretary in the Clinton administration, said that the “kidvid” rule was “not particularly radical” and that Mr. Pertschuk saw it as “very much in the tradition of the FTC’s mandate to protect young children from … advertising directed specifically at them.”

Even today, “in just about every meeting I have at the FTC, staff mention KidVid,” said Josh Golin, executive director of Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, which has filed complaints against YouTube and Facebook.

The FTC is haunted, for example, by a clash with Congress in the 1980s over an attempt by the agency to ban television ads for junk food directed at children, known as “KidVid.”

Even today, “in just about every meeting I have at the F.T.C., staff mention KidVid,” said Josh Golin, the executive director of Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, which has filed complaints against YouTube and Facebook.