French Health Minister raises stakes for advertising self-regulation

Date: 04/02/2008

The French Health Minister has this morning given a press conference to present research results on the effectiveness of the health messages which appeared on advertisements for all foods under the French Plans Nationaux Nutrition Santé (PNNS).

The data from the research demonstrate that the health messages have been successful in terms of how people have received them (citing high recall rates) and even in prompting behavioural change. Nevertheless, the Health Minister, Mrs Roselyne Bachelot, calls on the industry to adopt self-regulatory measures to limit certain types of food advertising to children by May 2008 or face statutory restrictions. Among the proposals are:

1. The formal set up of a framework in which self-regulatory commitments can be made to limit certain food advertising to children. This framework will be established at the beginning of March through meetings held between different government departments (Health, Finance, Agriculture, Culture) and industry (UDA, IAA, FCD, etc.) and consumer organisations. The first evaluation of the effectiveness of such voluntary measures will take place in May 2008 at which point a decision will be taken whether or not to pursue legislative action.

2. A demand to retailers to remove sweets and confectionary products from supermarket check-outs by June 2008.

3. Improvements to school meals.

4. Launch of an "observatoire de l'alimentation" bringing together three government departments with l'INRA (the French National Institute for Agricultural Research) and l'AFSSA (the French Food Standards Agency).

During the Q&A, the Minister did concede that a number of multi-nationals were already taking self-regulatory measures to limit the advertising to children of certain foods.

WFA has obtained the documents from this meeting and has made these available to members of the Responsible Advertising and Children programme (RAC). WFA is liaising closely with industry partners on this issue and will discuss developments in more detail at the upcoming RAC meeting on 12th February.

For more information please contact [email protected]

Further to this story, please find attached below an extract from Le Monde giving more information on the recently announced survey results.

 



Documents:
LeMonde.pdf