News [10/6/2006 ]         Brussels, 6 October 2006: The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) has today given its endorsement to the International Chamber of Commerce's (ICC) issuance of a new global framework for food and beverage marketing communications. The framework is demonstration of the marketing community's commitment to playing its role in tackling obesity and comes as a direct response to EU Commissioner Kyprianou's Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health and recommendations from the US Federal Trade Commission. The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) is the global code drafting body and promotes high ethical standards for business through its development and diffusion of rules, codes and guidelines. The new Framework for Responsible Food and Beverage Marketing Communications is an annex to ICC’s Advertising and Marketing Code, which was recently consolidated into a single set of global precepts to guide marketers, advertising agencies and the media in the current fast-evolving environment. The new code will ensure responsible food marketing communications in the non-traditional media, in light of the concern over increasing levels of obesity: now the content provisions for food marketing will strictly apply to all media, including telephone, TV, radio, press, cinema, internet, DVD/CD-ROM, direct marketing, outdoor marketing, sales promotions and sponsorship. The adoption of the new code is deemed to be particularly timely given the increasing migration of audiences away from traditional media, such as the television, to new media, and the increasing number of children, who are using the internet. Said Stephan Loerke, WFA Managing Director, “The marketing industry is in the business of listening to consumers and society at large. With very real concerns over obesity, we must reinforce our commitment to responsible marketing communications, particularly insofar as children are concerned. This is just the latest initiative that we will be taking to help tackle obesity. In Commissioner Kyprianou's EU Platform on Diet and Physical Activity and other national discussions, we have shown ourselves to be a constructive and proactive partner and we will continue to work with all stakeholders to find effective solutions." WFA will promote the Framework within its corporate membership and also work towards having the codes transposed into national self-regulatory code provisions worldwide. This will mean driving the national adoption of the code in over 50 self-regulatory organisations on five continents. Across Europe, WFA will monitor the compliance of food marketing communications against the new codes. The overall results are to be made public in the context of the EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. Continued Loerke: “This has raised the bar considerably by setting minimum requirements for food marketers operating across all media. As part of our commitment to self-conscious self-regulation, we have also committed to running code compliance projects in a transparent and participative way in order to help engender trust in the self-regulatory system.” ICC’s Advertising and Marketing Code outlines a series of global principles that contain both best practices and restrictions for marketing communications directed at children, including: campaigns must not exploit the inexperience of children, undermine the authority of parents or appeal to children to persuade their parents. The Framework contains a series of “guidelines” for food and beverage marketers, such as: -Marketing communications must not encourage excess consumption; -Portion sizes must suit the occasion; -Health and nutrition claims must be backed by sound science; -Foods not intended as meal substitutes should not be presented as such; -Food and drink promotions must not undermine the importance of a healthy lifestyle; -Using fantasy and animation to market to children are acceptable, but must not mislead them about nutritional benefits; -Marketing should not lead a child to believe a product will make him or her more popular, smarter or more successful in school or in sports; - Sales promotions must present the conditions of a premium offer or contest in language a child can understand, spelling out the products that must be purchased to receive the offer, the terms of entry, the prizes and the chances of winning. For more information on the ICC Framework, please visit the ICC website. You can download a copy of the new global framework for food and beverage marketing communications below. For press enquiries please contact w.gilroy@wfanet.org Documents: ICC_Framework_Food_an.pdf  (.pdf file, size 80.205 kb)