Junk food advertising to children to be reviewed
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
A public consultation will be launched next year to consider whether rules should be introduced for the first time on non-broadcast advertising of unhealthy food and drink targeted at children.
The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), which writes and maintains the UK advertising codes, is to hold a consultation with members of the public in the New Year on whether rules dedicated to the targeting of advertising to children of food and soft drinks high in fat, salt or sugar are needed in the non-broadcast code.
At the moment no rules dedicated to the governance of non-broadcast (signs, billboards, magazine and newspaper adverts) advertising to children of unhealthy food and drink exist in the UK.
While the current non-broadcast code states that food and soft drink adverts must not condone poor nutritional habits or an unhealthy lifestyle in children or encourage ‘pester power’, the CAP believes a change of approach may now be needed in light of concerns about children’s diets and changes to their media habits.
The CAP will now begin speaking with key consumer, campaigning, public health and industry organisations to further inform its thinking before launching the public consultation in 2016.
A CAP spokesperson said, ‘The decision to consult on the introduction of new rules comes against a background of concern about children’s diets, and is in response to changes in children’s media habits and evolving advertising techniques.
‘It follows careful consideration by CAP and a growing consensus, shared by public health and industry bodies, about the role of advertising self-regulation in contributing to wider initiatives to bring about a change in the nature and balance of food advertising targeted at children.’
Mike Hobday, director of policy at the British Heart Foundation, said, 'We welcome CAP’s long overdue decision to consult on introducing rules on non-broadcast advertising of food and soft drinks that are high in fat, salt or sugar to children. The current rules are weak, vague and inconsistent and do not protect children from aggressive marketing of unhealthy products.
'But a focus on non-broadcast marketing is not enough. An introduction of a 9pm watershed ban on junk food ads during family shows such as X Factor, which are not classed as children’s programming, would go a long way to protecting children.
'We will be responding to the consultation and continue to call on the Government to include ambitious measures to tackle junk food advertising as part of the forthcoming childhood obesity strategy.'
