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French industry to sign "obesity" charter
Date: 18/02/2009
18th February, Paris: the French Advertiser Association (UDA) and the French Food Industry Association (ANIA) will sign an "obesity charter" together with the French Health Minister, Roselyne Bachelot, the French Minister for Culture, Christine Albanel, and the President of the French Broadcasting Council (CSA). The Charter, also to be co-signed by 10 heads of French TV stations, makes various commitments designed to promote healthy diets and physical activity in editorial and advertising broadcast on French television.
The Charter includes:
- "une charte qualité," committing to ensure that the content of advertising messages help support healthy lifestyles. The food advertising codes are to be reviewed by the French Self-Regulatory Organisation (ARPP)
- financing by advertisers of "short programmes" to promote healthy lifestyles
- quotas for television stations for programming dedicated to healthy nutrition (500 hours/year),
- preferential tarifs for the National Institute of Prevention and Education for Health (INPES)
This Charter will be signed against a backdrop of parallel efforts to tax and restrict food advertising on television.
On February 4th a number of amendments were tabled on the new "Hospital Reform Bill" including the following:
- "TV or radio advertising for foods containing added sugar, fat or sweeteners, will be banned during programmes qualified by the Broadcasting Council as having an audience mostly composed by children and youth. This advertising will also be banned during the fifteen minutes preceding and following these programs. These provisions will apply to commercials broadcasted from and in the French territory from the 1 January 2010 onwards." (Amendment 552)
- "The rate: ‘1.5%' [for the tax on processed foods and sugary drinks advertising] is replaced by the rate: ‘3%' [...] in the Public Health Code." (Amendment 545)
The bill will be debated in plenary within the National Assembly within the week, before being sent to the Senate. If no agreement is reached, a special Commission formed by seven deputies and seven senators (‘Commission Mixte Paritaire') will be called together to decide on the bill and its amendments. If these amendments are adopted, the Charter would become obselete.
Source: The French Advertisers Association (www.uda.fr), with additional content from the Advertising Education Forum (www.aeforum.org)
