News [8/31/2006 ]         On 31 August, new rules introduced by the Brazilian National Council for Advertising Self Regulation (Conselho Nacional de Auto-Regulamentação Publicitária - CONAR) on advertising aimed at children and teenagers will come into force. The new rules, a revised version of section 11 of CONAR’s code of conduct, were first published in June.  They were developed jointly with the Association of Brazilian Advertisers (ABA), the Brazilian Food Industry Association (ABIA), and the Brazilian Soft Drink Industries Association (ABIR). The new rules are applicable to advertising for all products but include some new measures which specifically relate to food and drink advertising. They prohibit the consumption of products being associated with ideas of inferiority or superiority, prohibit the use of verbs in the imperative tense and set out a series of restrictions on children and teenagers being featured in advertising, as models to recommend the use of a product. Main points of the revised code: - introduce provisions to avoid providing misleading information to the consumer; - prohibit the use of an imperative tone to ask a children to buy and consume a product; - prohibits the appearance of children and teenagers as models to directly advocate the use of a product ; - prohibits the use of a journalistic format to induce people to believe it is news and not advertising; - when products are aimed at children and teenagers, the advertising must take into account the inability below a certain age to make a critical judgement. This new code was drafted in response to rising obesity level concerns in Brazil. It aims to ensure that advertising operates in parallel with the aims and objectives of Brazil’s authorities. Source: Advertising Education Forum For more information on this please contact w.gilroy@wfanet.org