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
