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Junk food fight moves to new media

The ad people aren’t stupid. When the job is selling Skittles, they will mass that awesome creativity and sell Skittles. Consumer groups want laws.

cellphone for kidsA coalition of consumer rights groups pressed their complaints about advertising on World Consumer Rights Day (March 15). So much for self-regulation; consumer groups want ad bans, including on the internet and mobile phones, enforceable by law. The International Obesity Taskforce (IOTF) and Consumers International (CI) presented a new plan, called the ‘International Code on Marketing of Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages to Children’. They will present it to the World Health Organization (WHO) General Assembly in May.

“The time has come for all concerned to recognize that an international code, enforceable in law, is the best way forward,” said University of Copenhagen professor Arne Astrup, an advisor to IOTF. “Voluntary measures and individual pledges from some companies offer inadequate protection when children are being targeted in the internet, by mobile phone as well as via television, and especially in developing countries where these kinds of calorie-dense foods can have a devastating impact on children's health.”

New media is targeted by the proposed Code, acknowledging – in a back-handed way – that the intended audience for junk food ads has moved on from traditional media. It calls for a complete ban on radio and television ads for junk – ‘unhealthy’ – food between 6 in the morning and 9 at night, no marketing on websites or mobile phones, no promotion in schools, no ‘attractive’ gifts or toys and no celebrities or cartoon characters. The IOTF defines ‘unhealthy’ food as “energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt.” 

That is junk food.

Not unlike other – mostly failed – attempts at changing behavior by targeting the marketing rather than the product, the Code and its sponsors miss a significant truth about people. They will buy what they want to buy so long as the benefit –and I use ‘benefit’ in purely economic terms - overrides the pain. After decades of tobacco ad bans, mixed with a bit of cultural Calvinism, tobacco use has fallen (in the West) because of restrictive laws, rules and taxes. Driving big tobacco companies into the margins is one thing; driving off Burger King or Nestlé isn’t the same.

Laws in the UK on junk food ads and ads targeting children were hardened recently, the European Commission moving in the same direction. Commercial broadcasters stopped producing programming for kids. Advertising and marketing people got the message, too.

A Eurobarometer study recently showed that in the 27 EU Member States plus Norway and Switzerland more than half of all 9 year olds have mobile phones. Many social networking websites and online games are geared toward young people. New media is a vast unregulated opportunity for selling stuff.

No country, it seems, is immune to obesity. India and China are finding that as economics change people tend to want things they’ve never had before, some of which might be unhealthy. The World Health Organization (WHO) expects 2.3 billion people will be overweight by 2015.

What characterizes this particular assault on advertising is the understanding by healthy lifestyle advocates that soft language and self-regulation goes nowhere. The proposed junk food Code is voluntary. Several major food companies – including Nestlé and Burger King – adopted their own Code last year. Pressure applied by startling statistics and consumer groups moved regulators and advertisers and marketers took note.

Bans on television advertising targeting children were not intended to curtail television programming for children. The world-wide unregulated web, growing wildly in its influence, startles some, amazes others. Other new media – mobile TV in particular – is expected to grow faster. Consumers, some being children, will always be drawn to media content targeting their interests, even if its at the margins.

The ad people know this.

 

 


related ftm articles

UK Government To Spend £75 Million On Advertising How To Lead A Healthy Life, But Still Allows Some Junk Food Advertising Before 9 p.m., Protecting The £211 Million That A Ban Would Cost TV Companies
Here are the UK government’s priorities when it comes to valuing child health: it’s worth taxpayers paying £372 million ($740 million, €495 million) for a vigorous multi-faceted program to combat obesity that includes a £75 million ($150 million, €100 million) advertising campaign aimed at adults to vigorously promote healthy eating and exercise lifestyles. But, for now at least, it’s not worth getting more bang for that taxpayer spend by endangering the £211 million that TV companies would lose if all junk food advertising were banned before 9 p.m.

At Least One Thing Seems To Unite European And American Lawmakers When It Comes To Television –Those Unhealthy Food Ads Targeted At Kids Need Restrictions, But Voluntary or Legislation?
On both sides of the Atlantic the campaign is gaining steam – obesity is a major problem, it’s continually getting worse in children at ever younger ages and one big villain is television. And although some food producers have voluntarily cut back targeting ads at the under 12s, and some government agencies have proposed what they see as tough advertising restrictions, the verbiage from some lawmakers and lobby groups is that it’s not enough.

UK Commercial Cable and Terrestrial Networks Say Outlook For Kids TV Programming Bleak As British Regulator Proposes Junk Food Ad Ban In Move That Will Cost Millions In Lost Revenue
Obesity is considered the number one growth disease in Europe, and it is getting worse the most in the under 16s. Could all those junk foods high in fat, salt and sugar that are heavily advertised in TV programs aimed at the under 16s be a contributing cause? The UK TV regulator thinks so, and has shocked commercial broadcasters by wanting to ban such ads aimed at kids starting in January.

Also see...

Further Complicated: Advertising, Children and Television

Advertising and television face more complaints, criticism and new rules. ftm reports on the debate in Europe and North America 43 pages PDF file (March 2007)

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