Consumer groups propose a global crackdown
By Heidi Dawley Mar 25, 2008
As the battle of the bulge intensifies around the globe, the latest offensive against junk food advertising to kids is moving to the internet, and just one step behind advertisers, who’ve come to see the web as their new frontier as well.
It promises to be an interesting tangle. Junk food foes have succeeded in restricting ads aimed at kids in a number of traditional media, either through regulation or industry-led restrictions.
Yet the internet is a new medium, one with few regulations, and one where clamping down on abusers—read spamsters here—is far harder.
Earlier this month several prominent consumer groups proposed a new code that would severely restrict global food and drink advertising to kids, and the internet ranks high on up their list of venues needing regulation.
They're proposing an outright ban on marketing junk foods on the internet, whether on web sites, social networking sites or even via text message. That's in addition to tough new restrictions on TV and other traditional media (see chart, below).
The proposed code, called the International Code on Marketing of Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages to Children, comes from Consumers International, which represents 220 consumer groups around the world, and the International Obesity Task Force, a 10,000-strong group of obesity experts.
The groups are calling for the code's adoption by governments around the world as part of the World Health Organization’s campaign against obesity. The plan is to present it at a May meeting of the WHO.
WHO says that there are 177 million kids around the globe who are currently overweight or obese and forecasts that 2.3 billion people over the age of 15 will be overweight by 2015.
Food marketers spend roughly $13 billion each year advertising their products, and that doesn't include what's spent on social networking sites, online games, and cartoon and celebrity tie-ins.
The proposed restrictions are sure to spark massive opposition from the food industry, and it's unlikely any would be adopted anytime soon even if they are adopted. But the code would serve as a template for regulation by member nations. Technically, as member nations they would be required to adopt the rules as written, though in reality the process would be dragged out over years.
Other proposed restrictions include bans on radio and TV junk food ads between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m., promoting unhealthy food in schools, use of free toys and gifts to promote junk food to kids, and use of celebrities, cartoon characters and competitions to market foods that are not healthy for kids.
These would come atop restrictions already in place in a number of countries, such as Sweden, where ads targeting children are banned outright, and Britain, where junk food can no longer be advertised on TV programs aimed at kids. This latter restriction has had several effects, and one has been to crimp ad revenue for the UK's commercial broadcasters. Some believe it's also led to a cutback in the amount of kids programming.
In the U.S., a number of food makers have agreed to cut back on advertising fat-and sugar-laden products to children.
As it is, U.S. kids are inundated with ads for unhealthy foods, reports a recent study. It found that 40 percent of the food ads kids see are for fast food, candy or snacks.
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Meanwhile, in online ratings for the week ended March 16, according to Nielsen Online, Google claimed the top spot among parent companies, followed by Microsoft, Yahoo, Time Warner and News Corp. Online. The top five brands were Google, Yahoo, MSN/Windows Live, AOL Media Network and Microsoft.
Experian Group Limited was the No. 1 advertiser for the second straight week with 6.2 million impressions, just ahead of NexTag’s 5.8 million. With 31 million ads served, Yahoo was again the top advertising site, well ahead of No. 2 MySpace at 3.9 million.
Sessions per person per week were down one from the previous week to 16, and domains visited per person were flat at 39. PC time per person was down 2.3 percent compared with the previous week, to 17 hours and 42 minutes.
Proposed WHO junk food code
Unhealthy foods are defined as energy-dense, nutrient-oor foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt.
The proposed code would:
-Ban unhealthy food ads on radio and TV between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m.
-Ban unhealthy food ads on all forms of new media, from web sites to social networking sites and text messaging.
-Ban unhealthy food promotions in schools
-Ban unhealthy food promotions that include free gifts, toys or collectible items that appeal to children
-Ban use of celebrities, cartoon characters, competitions or free gifts in unhealthy food ads and promotions
Top 25 parent companies Through March 16
#
Parent
Unique Audience (000)
Reach %
Time Spent per Person (hh:mm:ss)
1
Google
92,307
64.6
0:33:00
2
Microsoft
87,359
61.1
0:46:03
3
Yahoo!
78,693
55.0
1:03:22
4
Time Warner
72,774
50.9
1:14:56
5
News Corp. Online
43,093
30.1
0:46:36
6
eBay
34,180
23.9
0:53:29
7
InterActiveCorp
28,636
20.0
0:12:57
8
Wikimedia Foundation
25,233
17.7
0:09:13
9
Amazon
24,753
17.3
0:12:18
10
Apple Computer
23,461
16.4
0:35:14
11
Walt Disney Internet Group
22,472
15.7
0:17:14
12
Landmark Communications
21,857
15.3
0:08:58
13
New York Times Company
21,772
15.2
0:11:01
14
RealNetworks, Inc.
17,126
12.0
0:16:27
15
AT&T Inc.
16,977
11.9
0:20:26
16
E.W. Scripps Company
13,161
9.2
0:05:50
17
Bank of America
12,984
9.1
0:21:04
18
CBS Corporation
12,846
9.0
0:12:02
19
Comcast Corp.
12,784
8.9
0:33:34
20
Viacom Digital
12,349
8.6
0:22:55
21
Verizon Communications
12,030
8.4
0:18:53
22
CNET Networks
11,735
8.2
0:05:38
23
General Electric
11,315
7.9
0:09:47
24
Facebook
10,602
7.4
0:36:08
25
United Online
10,542
7.4
0:31:13
Source: Nielsen Online
Top 25 brands Through March 16
Parent
Unique Audience (000)
Reach %
Time spent per person (hh:mm:ss)
1
Google
85,012
59.5
0:25:01
2
Yahoo!
78,230
54.7
1:03:12
3
MSN/Windows Live
63,390
44.3
0:46:58
4
AOL Media Network
56,937
39.8
1:24:26
5
Microsoft
55,925
39.1
0:18:26
6
Fox Interactive Media
36,143
25.3
0:50:25
7
YouTube
35,584
24.9
0:22:28
8
eBay
28,104
19.7
0:57:08
9
Wikipedia
25,047
17.5
0:09:11
10
Apple
23,461
16.4
0:35:14
11
Amazon
19,975
14.0
0:11:39
12
Weather Channel
19,230
13.5
0:09:21
13
CNN Digital Network
18,349
12.8
0:17:41
14
Real Network
17,126
12.0
0:16:27
15
Ask Search Network
16,333
11.4
0:13:06
16
Blogger
15,921
11.1
0:05:23
17
About.com
13,339
9.3
0:03:21
18
Bank of America
12,668
8.9
0:21:11
19
AT&T
12,398
8.7
0:24:28
20
Facebook
10,602
7.4
0:36:08
21
Comcast
10,390
7.3
0:39:57
22
Craigslist
10,258
7.2
0:41:11
23
Chase
10,059
7.0
0:18:04
24
IMDb - Internet Movie Database
9,261
6.5
0:07:34
25
ESPN
9,016
6.3
0:15:53
Source: Nielsen Online
Top 25 advertisers (excludes house ads)
Through March 16
#
Company
Impressions (000)
1
Experian Group Limited
6,171,600
2
NexTag, Inc.
5,823,531
3
Vonage Holdings Corp
2,776,446
4
Netflix, Inc.
2,308,230
5
Toyota Motor Corporation
2,178,612
6
Sony Corporation
1,585,245
7
HSBC Holdings plc
1,485,910
8
CoolSavings, Inc.
1,298,876
9
Echostar Communications Corporation
1,105,306
10
Verizon Communications, Inc.
1,059,352
11
Bank of America Corporation
911,234
12
Wyeth Corporation
902,843
13
AT&T Corp.
820,741
14
Privacy Matters
805,501
15
Free-Games-Online.com
735,096
16
Time Warner Inc.
703,424
17
InterActiveCorp
684,677
18
General Motors Corporation
668,553
19
Wachovia Corporation
614,280
20
Sprint Corporation
584,215
21
Scottrade, Inc.
577,536
22
Edmunds.com, Inc.
397,026
23
Xadvantage
382,577
24
ScreenSaver.com
374,348
25
United Online, Inc.
362,264
Source: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance
Note: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Also, Nielsen Online, AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service.
Top 25 advertising sites (excludes house ads)
Through March 16
Company
Impressions (000)
1
Yahoo!
31,046,780
2
MySpace
3,900,439
3
MSN
3,418,710
4
AOL.com
1,224,583
5
MSNBC
980,771
6
eBay
844,464
7
Comcast.net
698,360
8
New York Times
605,101
9
The Weather Channel
603,705
10
Facebook
525,905
11
FOXNEWS.COM
523,314
12
NeoPets
476,261
13
IMDb
449,651
14
CNN
443,159
15
Photobucket
367,343
16
Digg
285,009
17
Amazon
285,009
18
ESPN.com
217,839
19
NetZero
209,083
20
Pogo
202,177
21
CNN Money
200,222
22
FOX Sports on MSN
184,709
23
Juno
178,285
24
Excite
163,695
25
EarthLink
162,814
Source: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance
Note: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Above data does not include any house advertising activity. Also, Nielsen Online, AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service.
