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WHO finalises 1st report on "Reducing Marketing Pressure on Children"
Date: 22/04/2008
The Norwegian Directorate for Health and Social Affairs has finalised the official report on the first meeting held in Oslo in January 2008 of the WHO appointed Action Network on Reducing Marketing Pressure on Children.[1] The Network agreed upon the following statement "as a starting point for the network's long term goal: to protect children's health through sharing experiences and best practices in order to identify and implement specific actions which will substantially reduce the extent and impact of all marketing to children of energy-dense, micronutrient-poor foods and beverages."
The stated "objectives for the meeting were:
- to formalize the network
- to discuss the principles and content of marketing regulations
- to consider the establishment of working groups
- to agree on common goal(s) and objectives for the network
The invited speakers presented summaries of the ongoing activities on this issue in their countries of reference and covered other aspects such as the evidence on the impact of food marketing to children; the trends and policy drivers of the regulation of food marketing globally and the rationale for regulation."
The network participants agreed on five specific objectives for the network:
1. "To constitute a coalition of committed countries who can identify and demonstrate specific actions to protect children against pressure from marketing of energy-dense, micronutrientpoor foods and beverages.
2. To discuss and share experiences in order to identify best practices in monitoring the exposure of children to food and beverage marketing and ensure that information is exchanged between the network countries and available to other countries in the Region and globally, including countries in transition.
3. To discuss alternative approaches to regulation, such as statutory regulation, self-regulation, voluntary measures and co-regulation and identify content and principles which may contribute to international recommendations on the regulation of marketing of food and non-alcoholic beverage to children.
4. To discuss and come up with advice on the use of nutrient profiling as a tool to control the marketing of food and beverages.
5. To prepare reports to various international meetings such as to the World Health Assembly and Regional Committee meetings in the WHO European Region."
In terms of age thresholds, it "It was agreed that 18 years could be used as a starting point for how children could be defined [...] However, it was pointed out that there needs to be flexibility around how countries choose to define age groups since there is a rationale for focusing on younger children. A general agreement seemed to prevail that "children" should at least encompass persons up to the age of 16."
Two working groups which will carry out the works in between the Network's meetings were established:
The Working group on content of regulations, led by Spain, will work on the following issues:
- "For work related to the school setting, aims include: to end the promotion of unhealthy foods in schools and kindergartens; to promote healthy foods; and to teach children about advertising and other marketing practices and how to practically evaluate them.
- For work related to the retail sector, aims include: to promote responsible positioning of products in stores; to reduce the extent of in-store promotions for unhealthy foods; to change product offering and packaging; and to restrict techniques to promote the sale of unhealthy food products, yet encourage the promotion of healthy foods.
- For work in the leisure and entertainment sphere, aims include: to reduce the portion sizes of foods offered at entertainment venues and to make sure that no advertising of unhealthy foods takes place during children's shows."
The Working group on monitoring, led by Portugal, will focus on the monitoring of:
- "How marketing has changed.
- Spending on marketing, by products or categories.
- Reduction in the consumption of products with poor nutritional profiling.
- The impact on obesity."
Timeframe: "Network meetings will be organized twice a year, on a rotating basis. The network will set out to work with a two year time frame. This means that future meetings will be held in fall 2008; spring 2009; fall 2009 and spring 2010. This time frame allows for network progress reports to be prepared for the Regional Committee meeting for the WHO European Region in September 2009 (written material due in June 2009) and the World Health Assembly in May 2010 (written material due in January 2010)."
A full copy of the report is available from the AEF Secretariat. Although it was originally expected for July 2008, AEF understands that this report is already to be considered as the final version.
Source: The Advertising Education Forum
WFA action: WFA is engaged with the Global Food Coalition (8 multi-national food companies and the food associations in the EU and US, CIAA & GMA) on how best to promote and advance the industry's vision for effective advertising self-regulation of food and beverage marketing at a global level. Through the group, WFA is engaging directly with WHO Geneva and presented our model of effective food and beverage advertising self-regulation to WHO Geneva staff on February 22nd. In parallel, WFA has an ongoing dialogue with WHO Europe staff in Copenhagen, ensuring that WHO Europe is aware of the progress of the marketing community in strengthening advertising self-regulation in the EU. For more information, contact [email protected]
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[1]"The 37 meeting participants included one to two representatives from each of the network countries that were able to come (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom); observers from the World Health Organization, the European Commission, the United Nations Standing Committee on Nutrition, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; and invited speakers/advisers." Full list of participants available in Annex I.
