Food for thought
27 February 2006
Early last year we expected OFCOM to start its consultation on its proposed restrictions on the advertising of HFSS food products (those High in Fat, Salt and Sugar) to children in the middle of the summer. Then the date got put back to September. Then back to November. When we last addressed this subject in Update@CAP, that was our expected start date for the consultation. Since then, OFCOM has delayed it yet again. The main reason for the delay is, we believe, the late delivery by the Food Standards Agency of its Nutrient Profiling method for OFCOM to use in the restrictions. Just before Christmas, we were hoping for the consultation to start around now but as each month goes by the date seems to retreat further into the distance. We now expect the consultation to start towards the end of March. But who knows? The one thing that is certain is that the Government expects the new ad regime to start by the beginning of 2007. That does not leave us much time to consider the proposal and to implement the results of the consultation.
Both CAP and BCAP are involved.
After consulting its members and the food industry, BCAP has delivered to OFCOM a draft proposal for broadcast advertising content rules. The draft is conditional on BCAP seeing the other proposed restrictions: the content rules have to exist side by side with scheduling and perhaps other restrictions and without knowing what they are BCAP cannot determine content rules that are proportionate in the context of the whole package. One thing that is certain is that BCAP does not volunteer to incorporate the FSA’s Nutrient Profiling in the content restrictions.
By the time you read this, timings might have changed yet again but hopefully not. When the consultation does start (it will be published on the OFCOM website), we urge all those with a commercial interest in food advertising to respond to it.
CAP has confirmed that it will change the CAP Code in light of the results of the broadcast consultation. But, of course, how the Code will change depends on the results of that consultation and we are unlikely to know them until the middle of the year at the earliest. In the meantime we are working with the Department of Health Food and Drink Advertising and Promotion Forum, which has been tasked with advising CAP on how food ads and promotions in media other than radio and TV should be restricted. Of course, some non-broadcast ads are not covered by the CAP Code and CAP has suggested that the Forum should concentrate on those that are outside CAP’s remit; the Forum has established four working groups to do just that.
Meanwhile, CAP will draft changes to the CAP Code in anticipation of the result of the OFCOM consultation so that delays are kept to a minimum. So, in due course, expect to see new restrictions on food ads and promotions in all media to start at the beginning of next year.
The industry is committed to achieving the objectives of the Government’s Health White Paper and has already made significant changes to the way it advertises HFSS foods: the ad landscape is already different from what it was a few years ago but we face pressure for even more change. The changes already implemented do not apply only to advertising and promotion. Food and drink manufacturers have brought out an increasing number of variants that are lower in fat, salt or sugar. Strangely (or perhaps not, for now and then we all like a bit of something that is “naughty but nice”), some of those new introductions have suffered from a lack of consumer demand despite receiving significant marketing support.
And, despite the FSA’s Nutrient Profiling model, some manufacturers have announced new and better on-pack statements of fat, salt and sugar content based of Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs), which even the FSA’s research showed were better than the NP approach at discriminating between different foodstuffs.
So, much has changed already and much change is still to come.
One thing that has not yet surfaced, however, is the list of success criteria against which the Government will judge the impending changes to the CAP and BCAP Codes. CAP and BCAP have argued the illogicality of demanding a change in the Codes to ensure an unknown set of results but so far without success. All we know is that the ad landscape must change: the 2004 White Paper made that totally clear. But it has already changed and it will change even more.
The objective of a healthier nation, doing more exercise and eating less HFSS foods, is a laudable one but is restriction of advertising the best way of delivering that objective? OFCOM’s research shows food advertising to children has only a marginal effect on foods eaten. CAP and BCAP are committed to ensuring that foods and soft drinks are advertised responsibly and without a prohibition on any type of legally sold foodstuff. The restrictions the industry willingly accepts on the way it advertises is but one part of a multi-faceted solution to the obesity and health of the nation problem. The industry has agreed to participate in the proposed Social Marketing campaign and many companies have introduced new marketing initiatives to help deliver the Government’s policy. Others, within and without the industry, must put all the other elements of the solution in place otherwise the forthcoming ad restrictions will be in vain.