Junking food ads?
10 May 2007
Much has been made in the press recently about the fact that the nation is getting fatter. It has been suggested that advertising has played its part in contributing to this and, as a result, new rules on the advertising of food and drink products to children have been introduced. These will fundamentally change advertising activity in this area. Most of the new rules come into effect on 1 July. What changes should you expect to see?
OFCOM announced the new rules for the advertising of food and drink products to children on television, and they impact on both when ads can be shown and their content. The rules refer to foods that are high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) - as defined by the nutrient profiling scheme published by the Food Standards Agency (FSA). The new scheduling restrictions mean that those food and drink products deemed to be HFSS cannot be advertised in or around programmes that have particular appeal to children up to the age of 16 years old. However, because of the financial impact that this change is going to have for some broadcasters, the restrictions are being phased in. Since April, no HFSS products have been advertised in or around programmes of particular appeal to children up to the age of 10 years and in January 2008 the bar will be raised to programmes of particular appeal to children up to the age of 16. On dedicated children's channels the restrictions will be phased in over time, but the process will need to be completed by 1 January 2009.
Broadcasters will determine whether a programme is of "particular appeal" to children using a tool called audience indexing. The system is complicated, but in essence, a programme is deemed of "particular appeal to children" if the proportion of children watching it is 20% greater than the proportion of children in society. This means that programmes such as Coronation Street will not be subject to the HFSS food ad restrictions because, although children may watch the programme, it is not of 'particular appeal' to children.
The rules about the content of ads include the requirement that no promotional offers or licensed characters or celebrities popular with children can be used in ads for HFSS foods targeted directly at pre-school or primary-school children and that no health or nutritional claims can be made in these ads. Food ads should not condone or encourage poor nutritional habits or an unhealthy lifestyle in children or encourage children to make a nuisance of themselves to their parents.
The rules introduced by CAP for non-broadcast advertising follow similar principles. They apply to all food (excluding fresh fruit and vegetables) and there are tougher restrictions on food or drink product ads that are directly targeted at primary school or pre-school children through their content. The non-broadcast rules do not rely on the FSA's nutrient profiling model.
The rules will need to be reviewed to measure their impact. The Government, FSA and OFCOM have all signalled their intention to review the effect of the rules, and in the FSA's case, the nutrient profiling model, in 2008. BCAP and CAP will also monitor the situation.