Warc, 22 September 2014
BRUSSELS: Eleven of the world's top food and beverage
brands, including Coca-Cola and McDonald's, have outlined a package of measures
to enhance responsible marketing to children, the World Federation of
Advertisers (WFA) has announced.
As members of the International Food & Beverage Alliance
(IFBA), their CEOs have sent a joint letter to Dr Margaret Chan, the director
general of the World Health Organization (WHO), to restate their commitments on
health and wellness.
Recognising that greater effort must be made to achieve
global health goals, they went on to outline what new action they will be
taking to promote healthy lifestyles, improve consumer information, and
strengthen responsible marketing to children.
The companies concerned include Coca-Cola, Ferrero, General
Mills, Grupo Bimbo, Kellogg, Mars, McDonald's, Mondelēz International, Nestlé,
PepsiCo and Unilever.
Already committed to a policy of only advertising to
children under 12 years of age products that meet specific nutrition criteria
on TV, in print and online, the CEOs said they will expand this approach to
cover almost all media.
The new policy will cover radio, cinema, direct marketing,
mobile, SMS, interactive games, DVD/CD-ROM and product placement.
Furthermore, when marketing to children under 12, all
marketing techniques – such as licensed characters, movie tie-ins and the use
of celebrities – will have to comply with "better-for-you"
nutritional criteria.
A third key change is that the companies will seek to
harmonise nutrition criteria, on a regional or national basis, to provide a
strict common standard, as they have done in the European Union, the US and a
number of other countries.
"The major food and beverage companies have strict
controls in place on how they communicate with younger audiences," said Stephan
Loerke, managing director of the WFA.
"This latest strengthening of the IFBA global policy
demonstrates the extent to which IFBA members are taking their responsibilities
seriously when it comes to marketing to children," he added.
The development comes amid mounting official concern that
brands and advertisers should do more to tackle obesity and other related
problems.
For example, Public Health England, a UK government agency,
recently launched an investigation into the promotion of fizzy drinks, and
other products considered to be unhealthy, and said it would consider the case
for tighter controls on advertising.
Data sourced from WFA, IFBA; additional content by Warc
staff
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