Food advertising and obesity: An Executive Briefing

The challenge
The World Health Organisation’s Global Strategy of May 2004 calls on national governments to “work with consumer groups and the private sector (including advertising) to develop appropriate multisectoral approaches to deal with the marketing of food to children, and to deal with such issues as sponsorship, promotion and advertising” in order to “promote the development, production and marketing of food products that contribute to a healthy diet and are consistent with national or international dietary recommendations.”

National regulatory responses
As a result of the WHO Global Strategy, there has been a great deal of regulatory and public discussion around the world about the relative merits of regulatory versus voluntary responses. Until now, only four national governments have chosen to regulate food advertising, each taking a different approach.

In 2005, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland adopted a code of conduct on food advertising which requires advertisers to use acoustic and visual messages about healthy eating and applies conditions on the use of celebrities and characters. France chose in 2006 to include positive messages about healthy eating and exercise in advertisements for all manufactured foods. The UK adopted scheduling restrictions for foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) as defined by a nutrient profiling model as well as content rules, while South Korea has adopted a proposal to restrict the advertising of “high calorie, low nutrition foods” (details to be determined).

Most regional and national regulators have favoured a self-regulatory approach for the time being. In Europe, the 2007 “Audiovisual Media Services Directive” (AVMS) contains no additional restrictions on children’s food advertising but states that “member States and the Commission shall encourage media service providers to develop codes of conduct regarding inappropriate audiovisual commercial communication, accompanying or included in children's programmes, of foods and beverages containing nutrients and substances with a nutritional or physiological effect, in particular those such as fat, trans-fatty acids, salt/sodium and sugars, excessive intakes of which in the overall diet are not recommended.” The United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand amongst many others have similarly encouraged industry to come up with voluntary responses to the WHO challenge.

The industry response
The industry has adopted a variety of self-regulatory measures to ensure responsible food and beverage advertising that helps to promote healthy lifestyles. These include both codes of conduct that set qualitative rules for food advertising and voluntary agreements that bear on the types of products that can be advertised to children.

1. Qualitative rules
In 2004, the International Chamber of Commerce adopted the Framework for Responsible Food and Beverage Communications. This code was updated in October 2006 to cover all forms of marketing communications, including the Internet. It sets down global requirements for food and beverage marketing communications and includes a special section on food marketing to children. Key provisions include: the need for substantiation for claims or health benefits; no encouragement of excess consumption; no representation of snacks as meals; no undermining of healthy lifestyle messages and no undermining of the role of parents.

The ICC Framework is applicable globally but is a minimum standard designed to be adapted and transposed into SR codes at national level. Many countries have implemented provisions that use the ICC Framework as a basis, but go further in several respects, depending on local considerations. Examples include Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Ireland, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, the UK and the USA.

2. Quantitative rules
Leading food and beverage companies have also adopted voluntary agreements to limit their advertising to children under 12 to products that meet high nutritional standards. Four such pledges have been launched to date:

All these programmes have the common objective of limiting advertising of food and beverage products to children under the age of 12 to products which fulfill specific nutrition criteria based on accepted scientific evidence and/or applicable national and international dietary guidelines. They also foresee independent monitoring mechanisms in order to demonstrate company compliance with their voluntary commitments.

Furthermore, companies are increasingly developing global food marketing policies based on the principles enshrined in these pledge programmes. These policies will ensure that their commitments cover all markets in which they advertise. Eight of the world’s biggest food manufacturers (Coca-Cola, General Mills, Kellogg, Kraft, Mars, Nestlé, PepsiCo. and Unilever) have committed to finalize and announce plans and timetables to achieve this by the end of 2008. These industry leaders will also take into account the need to involve as many companies as possible to ensure the application of such commitments is made more widespread throughout the industry.

For more information please contact Will Gilroy: [email protected]
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