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WFA supports Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative
Date: 20/11/2007
Brussels, 11th December 2007 - The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) today applauded 11 food and beverage advertisers for committing to change their food and beverage advertising to children in support of parental efforts to promote healthy lifestyles in the European Union. WFA facilitated the initiative amongst its members and endorses it as an example of good practice in food advertising self-regulation.
The 11 signatories of the "EU Pledge", Burger King, Coca-Cola, Groupe Danone, Ferrero, General Mills, Kellogg, Kraft, Mars, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever, represent over 50% of the food and beverage advertising market in the EU. They each commit to implementing company-specific voluntary measures by the end of 2008 at the latest, which fulfill the following minimum criteria:
- No advertising of products to children under 12 years on TV, print and internet, except for products which fulfill specific nutrition criteria based on accepted scientific evidence and/or applicable national and international dietary guidelines.
- No communication related to products in primary schools, except where specifically requested by, or agreed with, the school administration for educational purposes.
"Today's announcement demonstrates how self-regulation continues to respond in a timely and proactive way to societal concerns." said Stephan Loerke, WFA Managing Director.
These voluntary measures are taken as a direct response to EU Health Commissioner, Markos Kyprianou's Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health, chaired by Robert Madelin, Director General for Health and Consumer Protection. As a pre-requisite for all platform commitments, the pledge signatories will conduct independent compliance monitoring of their commitment for TV, print and Internet advertising.
This commitment is part of a raft of self-regulatory initiatives taken by advertisers on the European Commission Platform. Marketers are also investing significant resources in strengthening advertising self-regulatory organisations in the EU, implementing and monitoring reinforced codes of conduct for food and beverage advertising and teaching media literacy to children aged 6-11. Media Smart (www.mediasmart.org.uk), originally launched in the UK in 2002, has now been taught to around 3 million European children across Belgium, Finland, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and Sweden.
"This is just part of the industry's response. We have worked with the Commission and other stakeholders in identifying a best practice model of self-regulation*, have reinforced codes of conduct and are providing children with the tools to help them understand and interpret advertising, so that they are able to make informed choices. We will continue to work with consumers, parents, policymakers and all stakeholders to promote healthier lifestyles," concluded Loerke.
*The EU Advertising Roundtable was an EU Commission initiative bringing together consumer and public health groups with representatives of the European Advertising Industry to try and develop a best practice model of advertising self-regulation. The Commission's concluding report can be found at:
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/hot_topics/report_advertising_en.htm
Documents:
EU Pledge.pdf
