PHA-Exchange> Marketing food to children: the global regulatory environment

[claudio at hcmc.netnam.vn]

Marketing food to children: the global regulatory environment 
Corinna Hawkes
World Health Organization 2004

 

Available online PDF file [88p.]  at:: 
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2004/9241591579.pdf  

"........Responding to concerns over the threat of an epidemic of diet-related 
non communicable diseases (NCDs), such as heart diseases, certain types of 
cancer, diabetes and obesity, the World Health Organization (WHO) has prepared 
a draft global strategy on diet, physical activity and health, that will be 
considered by Member States in May 2004. As part of the strategy development 
process, WHO has been examining a range of interventions that have the 
potential to play a role in tackling the globally rising rates of non 
communicable diseases  NCDs.

 

In this respect, the regulation of the marketing of food, especially to 
children, has emerged as one area necessitating further attention. In an 
attempt to broach this issue in

more depth,WHO commissioned the present review of the regulatory environment 
that surrounds the marketing of food (including non-alcoholic beverages) to 
children.

Although formal definitions of "marketing" are very broad, for the purposes of 
this review the term was used to refer only to those processes that are very 
visible to the consumer, namely: advertising and promotion. Six marketing 
techniques widely used by companies to promote food to children were singled 
out: television advertising, in-school marketing, sponsorship, product 
placement, Internet marketing and sales promotions.

 

Information about regulations governing each of these six marketing practices 
was obtained by conducting a thorough search of a wide range of information 
resources, including web sites of government ministries and industry 
organizations, legal databases, published books and papers, and governmental 
and nongovernmental reports. The data so obtained was then cross-checked 
against alternative sources, a process which involved personal contact with 
marketing experts worldwide. In all, the search process yielded verified 
information about marketing regulations in a set of 73 countries from all world 
regions, although some are less well represented than others owing to 
difficulties in accessing the relevant information.

 

Although the present review is primarily concerned with regulations governing 
the marketing of food to children, it was recognized that a wide range of 
regulations have the potential to affect the techniques used to market food to 
children, including those that apply to all age groups and all products. In 
fact, non child-specific consumer protection laws have been used as the basis 
for litigation against several large food companies.

 

Of the six techniques, television advertising is perhaps the most popular means 
of promoting food and beverage products worldwide and consequently has been the 
subject of more debate, in terms of its effects on children, than any other 
marketing practice. It is also the most widely regulated; 85% of the 73 
countries surveyed had some form of regulation on television advertising to 
children and almost half (44%) had specific restrictions on the timing and 
content of television advertisements directed at children.Two countries and one 
province have banned television advertising to children. The effect of such 
bans on children's diets is, however, difficult to evaluate; existing bans tend 
to be undermined by cross-border advertising (i.e. advertising that originates 
from another country) and other marketing techniques, factors which complicate 
evaluation. Twenty-two countries have some form of regulatory or self-
regulatory clause on food advertising, but the degree of implementation of 
these clauses and their effect on children's diets has likewise not been 
evaluated.

 

Countries differ in their approach to the regulation of television advertising. 
Some rely solely on statutory regulations (i.e. those enshrined in laws or 
statutes, or rules designed to fill in the details of the broad concepts 
mandated by legislation), others preferring self-regulation (i.e. regulations 
put in place by a self-regulatory system whereby industry actively participates 
in, and is responsible for, its own regulation). In many cases, both forms of 
regulation coexist. The principle underlying many

regulations is that advertising should not be deceitful or misleading. Most 
national regulations recognize children as a special group in need of special 
consideration and stipulate that advertising should not be harmful or 
exploitative of their credulity...

 

The marketing of food products to children in the school environment, be it in 
the form of direct advertising (e.g. signage), indirect advertising (e.g. 
sponsorship of educational materials) or product sales, is second only to 
television advertising in terms of the amount of controversy that it has 
attracted in recent years. Indeed, attempts to regulate sales of high-fat 
snacks and carbonated soft drinks in schools in the United States of America 
has become something of a cause célèbre amongst anti-obesity advocates and 
lawmakers. Although the practice is growing almost everywhere, many countries 
do not have specific regulations on in-school marketing; 33% of the countries 
surveyed were identified as having any form of regulation of this type and only 
a handful of countries place any restrictions on the sales of selected food 
products in schools

 

There are, however, signs that attitudes are changing, with national 
governments and the food industry taking a more proactive stance in developing 
new approaches to the regulation of product sales in schools. Regulation of non-
traditional forms of marketing, including Internet marketing, sponsorship, 
product placement and sales promotions can be described as patchy with regard 
to children. Although regulations on sponsorship and sales promotions are 
fairly common, very few countries have

regulations on these forms of marketing that are specific to children and/or 
food. Partly because of the embedded nature of product placement, regulations 
on this form of marketing are especially open to the vagaries of 
interpretation.Children have been identified as an ideal target group for 
Internet-based advertisers, but as marketing on the Internet is relatively new, 
its regulation is still at the developmental stage in most countries.

 

The main difficulty here lies in the fact that although many existing 
regulations in theory also apply to online advertising, in practice it is not 
always feasible to transfer the existing rules to Internet marketing owing to 
the complex and interactive nature of the technologies involved. Sponsorship 
and sales promotions are widely used techniques used to market food to 
children, but seldom do regulations account for their potential effects on 
children's eating patterns.

 

The review concludes that many countries have in place a range of regulations 
applicable to the marketing of food to children. But there are also gaps and 
variations in the existing global regulatory environment. Importantly, existing 
regulations do not consider food as a special category from the viewpoint of 
public health; regulations aim to guide the content and form of promotions, not 
to minimize their ability to encourage consumption of certain foods. Still, the 
regulatory environment is evolving; new regulations are continually being 
proposed and developed, industry is making new efforts, and consumer and public 
health groups are making new demands.These ongoing efforts tend, however, to 
focus on television advertising and in-school product marketing in the 
developed world, and less so on non-traditional forms of marketing and the 
growing use of promotional activities in developing countries.

 

Mechanisms for implementation and enforcement of regulations, which may involve 
a complaints system,penalties for non-compliance and/or most stringent of all, 
systems for preapproval of advertisements, vary considerably between countries. 
Although implementation and enforcement issues were beyond the scope of this 
review, case studies and anecdotal evidence cited indicate wide variations in 
the degree of enforcement of regulations.

 

Some consensus is emerging that the issue of food marketing to children needs 
to be addressed by all stakeholders. More objective research on the effects of 
marketing regulations on dietary patterns is warranted. Progress could be 
achieved by ensuring that health is at the centre of further policy development 
concerning the marketing of food to children..........."

 



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