Updating paper on Platform commitments made on marketing and
advertising
Background
In 2008 the Platform Plenary discussed the theme marketing and
advertising in its meeting 19th November 2008. The working Paper on
Platform Commitments made on marketing and advertising served as a
background for this discussion.
Minutes from the meeting 19.11.2008 discussion presentations and
discussion on marketing and advertising
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determinants\030. Life-style Related Hea
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The definitions, research summaries and regulations discussed in this document are still valid,
and questions set out in the 2008 working paper somewhat updated can serve as a starting
point for the discussion at the present meeting.
Since November 2008 the first report from OFCOM on "Changes in the nature and balance
oftelevision food advertising to children A review of HFSS advertising restrictions" was
published in December 2008 giving some primary results on the effect of restrictions in UK.
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In addition to this and in accordance with World Health Assembly Resolution WHA60.23,
which requests the Director-General to develop a set of recommendations on the marketing of
foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children , WHO plans to finalise a draft set of
recommendations on marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children during September 2009.
The draft set of recommendations will subsequently be submitted to the Office of the Director-General. The
guidelines are expected to be presented to the WHO Executive Board for consideration at its
next meeting in January 2010.
Press release from OFCOM
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determinants\030. Life-style Related Health Determinants\1 - Nutrition & physical
WHO Update on the Development of Set of
Recommendations on the Marketing of Foods
and Non-alcoholic Beverages to Children
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determinants\030. Life-style Related Health Determinants\1 - Nutrition & physical
Update on Platform member's commitments based on the 2009 Annual report.1
New commitments 2008 - Advertising controls
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European Group of Television Advertising (EGTA) committed to producing
guidelines helping its members (television sales houses across Europe) interpret
the ICC Food and Beverage framework of advertising self-regulation, and thus
better play their gate keeper role (1054). The guidelines will include a set of
recommendations for traffic controllers to pay particular attention to advertising
spots for food and beverage products targeting children and to request copy
advice more systematically in case of doubts. The EGTA will organize a launch
conference in the last quarter of 2009. Interested professionals from all EGTA
European sales houses will be invited. EGTA will aim to ensure the programme
responds to the needs of sales house professionals. The participation of selfregulation practitioners and advertising professionals, as well as the use of case
studies of television advertising spots should offer participants hands-on
learning.
Towards these aims, the EGTA has carried out a number of activities, including
sending its members a Recommendation Paper to alert them of the need to
improve the effectiveness of self-regulation of food advertising, and conducting
a survey among EGTA's members to identify the traffic controllers within the
sales houses and their job procedures and constraints so as to help in the
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As pointed out in footnote 23 in the working paper 2008 there is a considerable crossover
between the platform classifications "marketing and advertising" and the classifications
"lifestyles and education", which might leave some commitments relating to advertising and
marketing not appearing in this overview.
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assessment of their understanding of the ICC Framework and their concrete
difficulties in interpreting it.
The actions carried on by EGTA during 2008 are part of a preliminary phase
which provides the basis to proceed with the actual drafting of the interpretative
guidelines, which is the final objective of the EGTA’s commitment. As a result,
there are no outcome/impact indicators identifiable at present.

World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), which had other commitments in
previous years in this area. The WFA’s EU Pledge is a commitment to change
food and beverage advertising on TV, print and internet to children under the age
of 12 in the EU (1075). The aim is that participating companies will do so by
limiting advertising of products to children less than 12 years to products which
fulfil specific nutrition criteria based on accepted scientific evidence and/or
applicable national and international dietary guidelines. In addition, participating
companies pledge not to engage in any communications related to products in
primary schools, except where specifically requested by, or agreed with, the
school administration for educational purposes. Signatory companies will
implement company-specific voluntary measures by-end 2008 to meet this
commitment.
Currently participating companies, which represent approximately two thirds of
the food and beverage advertising spending in the EU, are: Burger King, CocaCola, Danone, Ferrero, General Mills, Kellogg, Kraft, Mars, Nestlé, PepsiCo,
Unilever
In 2008, the EU Pledge initiative achieved a number of outputs, including: the
establishment of a permanent secretariat for the initiative; the creation of the
www.eu-pledge.eu website; the development of a company-specific
commitment within the framework of the EU Pledge by each individual
company; the development of the compliance monitoring programmes for 2009
and; the appointment of independent auditors and reviewers. Outcome indicators
will be provided following the completion of compliance monitoring
programmes in 2009.
Continuing Commitments, Advertising controls
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CIAA’s commitment on principles for food and beverage advertising and
product marketing communication estimates that compliance with this
commitment (which is linked to actions of the WFA) is around 97% for 2008
(611).
CIAA commitment focused on The self-regulatory code for advertising, in
Belgium. According to its monitoring activities, the number of complaints on
marketing practice decreased from 32 in 2007 to 20 in 2008, and the number of
requests for advice before publication increased from 10 in 2007 to 25 in 2008
(FEVIA, 265).
A CIAA member, Mars, provided training to over 100 of its employees as well
as external advertising agencies working for Mars, on its Marketing
Commitments which include stopping all food and snack food products
advertising targeted at children below the age of 12 years old (1018).
CIAA member, Unilever, through its commitment on Responsible marketing
and advertising conducted a monitoring exercise on advertising for food and
non-alcoholic drinks to assess compliance of TV, press and paid-for internet
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advertising. The overall compliance result for Unilever was of 99% with one add
in breach (833).
European Consumers Organisation (BEUC) continued with its commitment
on Advertising and marketing unhealthy foods to children in EU. A number of
BEUC’s members conducted a number of activities in 2008, including the
publication of a report detailing and analysing the various marketing tactics
being employed by 12 of the UK's leading food companies to promote foods to
children; a study of food advertising during children's television programmes
broadcast between 06.00h and 21.00h. in Spain; and the launch in Italy and
Portugal of campaigns to fight against obesity where one of the major objectives
was to educate people about the power of marketing to children and to call for
the adoption of the CI Code on Marketing to children (1047).
World Federation of Advertisers had a number of commitments in this area.
First, its commitment on Strengthening advertising self-regulation across the
EU27: setting up SROs and codes of conduct, continued in 2008 with its efforts
to establish self-regulatory organizations (SROs) which resulted in the launch of
an SRO in Luxembourg and the achievement of consensus for the establishment
of one in Bulgaria (538).
A related commitment of the WFA, Strengthening advertising self-regulation
across the EU27: provision of advice and training for SROs (539) led in 2008 to:
 A fully operational copy advice system being set up in the Czech Republic.
 The Netherlands and Romania working towards setting up a copy advice service
and are in the process of launching it.
 Germany working towards re-launching this service.
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A third commitment of the WFA in this area was Strengthening advertising selfregulation across the EU 27, through best practice in complaint handling,
enforcement and compliance (540). In 2008, this commitment achieved:
 Online complaints services (specific online complaint forms) are now available
in 17 of the 21 operating SROs in the EU.
 The code compliance monitoring for food and beverage advertising was
repeated in 8 countries in 2008.
 SRO adjudications are now available on SRO websites, with a dedicated
webpage, in 19 of the 21 countries where SROs are operational.
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The WFA commitment, Strengthening advertising self-regulation across the
EU27 by raising awareness within industry and among consumers (542), led to
18 out of 21 operational SROs across the EU launching awareness raising
campaigns, with other SROs making plans towards this. Related websites and
publications have also been revamped or launched.
Another WFA commitment in this area was on Strengthening and expanding
food and beverage advertising SR across the EU27 (544). In 2008 WFA and
EASA repeated the independently verified compliance monitoring programme to
verify proper implementation of the ICC Framework provisions, which this year
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covered third-party internet advertising, as well as TV and the print media. The
overall level of compliance was again satisfactory, reaching 96% this year.
Questions for Consideration
The commitments made on marketing and advertising, the context in which they are being
made, and the information available about their effects raise some questions. Taking a critical
perspective, some of these questions pose challenging issues. In a more positive light, they
raise issues that need to be understood by all parties in order that industry can contribute
effectively to addressing this always contentious issue. The most critical question is: has the
nature and balance of food marketing to children changed since the introduction of selfregulatory codes and voluntary initiatives, and if so, how? And what can be learned from this
to move forward?
Effects
o What is the impact of the pledge? Can the companies that have implemented the pledge,
indicate what is the difference in ad/marketing spent?
o What is the best way to measure the effects of the change in nature and balance of
marketing? Is expenditure the best indicator, since less expenditure does not necessary
mean less or less effective marketing? Should these measures cover all forms of
marketing?
o Have any changes in advertising and marketing resulted in lower sales of some
products and more sales of others?
Compliance with self-regulatory codes
o Self-regulatory advertising codes that affect the quality of advertising, but not the
quantity, are the subject of the largest proportion of advertising and marketing
commitments. Monitoring suggests that compliance with these self-regulatory
advertising codes can be high. What have been the factors that have contributed to
successful compliance and what can be learned from this?
o What are the implications of compliance to self-regulatory codes for children’s
exposure to food and drink advertising? Does it affect children's dietary behaviours?
Approach
o Seemingly different approaches have been taken by the advertising industry
(qualitative only but sector wide) and the food industry (some restrictions but by
individual companies). Why?
o What is the role of companies and trade associations? How do they differ?
Restrictions and age limits
o Some companies (e.g. Mars) define their restriction to TV advertising children under
the age of 12 as applying to programmes with more than 25% of viewers being less
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than 12 years of age, whereas others (e.g. the trade association UNESDA) define it as
being more than 50% of children less than 12 years of age. Can industry aim for a
standard definition?
o The EU Pledge leaves it to the individual participating company to define the nutrition
profiles for products/meals to be considered HFFS and thus not marketed to children.
What advantages/disadvantages does this have compared to the OFCOM approach
relying on the FSA approach?
Alternative marketing techniques
o While not directly targeted at children under the age of 12, are children aged 12
viewing advertising and other marketing techniques primarily targeted at slightly older
age groups (“tweens”)? How should this be addressed?
o Are alternative marketing techniques such as marketer-owned websites, in-game
advertising and use of viral marketing also affected by the commitments? Is their use
declining, or are they now being used more intensively in place of television
advertising?
Monitoring
o Monitoring of voluntary food company commitments has thus far been conducted
internally or through an external auditor. Is this adequate, or is an independent body
needed, along the lines of a well-functioning SRO?
o Are more specific targets and indicators needed to clarify the effects of the advertising
and marketing commitments?
o What is the cost of the EU pledge, what was and is the investment in delivering the
commitment?
o Is it possible to say anything in the markets about the proportion of food and beverage
that are covered or not covered by the pledge?
o When applying self-regulatory codes, how to address marketing from industries not
signing up to those?
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