News [11/15/2006 ]         The Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) and the National Advertising Review Council (NARC) in the US have today announced two new initiatives in the area of advertising and children; the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative and revisions to the Self-Regulatory Guidelines on Children's Advertising. The Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative The Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative is a voluntary programme involving 10 of the largest food and beverage companies , together estimated to account for more than two-thirds of children's food and beverage television advertising expenditures. Under the terms of the Initiative, the participating companies commit to: - Devoting at least half their advertising directed to children on television, radio, print and internet to promote healthier dietary choices and/or to promote messages that encourage good nutrition or healthy lifestyles. - Limiting products shown in interactive games online to healthier dietary choices, or incorporate healthy lifestyle messages into the games. - Not advertising food or beverage products in elementary schools. - Not engaging in food and beverage product placement in editorial and entertainment content. - Reducing the use of third-party licensed characters in advertising that does not meet the Initiative's product or messaging criteria. Each participating company will submit to the CBBB a commitment, tailored to the company's product portfolio that complies with the principles of the Initiative. Company commitments that identify better-for-you dietary choices must be consistent with established scientific and/or government standards. The Initiative will be further supported by experts in nutrition and media research. Programme staff will monitor companies' compliance with their commitments and will maintain a publicly accessible Website that details their findings. The CBBB expects the program to be up and running within the next six to nine months. Revisions to the Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children's Advertising The Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children's Advertising have been revised by the CBBB's Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU), which monitors all advertising directed to children under 12s, strengthening their ability to provide guidance and oversight to all industry sectors. The Guidelines Review process brought together more than 40 leading children's advertisers across industry sectors - broad participation that demonstrates the children's advertising industry's strong support for self-regulation. The revised CARU Guidelines have been expanded to: - Provide new authorisation for CARU to take action on advertising targeted to children that is "unfair," in addition to advertising that is misleading. - Specifically address "blurring," or advertising that obscures the line between editorial content and advertising messages. A new provision, which applies across all media, prohibits advertising that "blurs the distinction between advertising and programme/editorial content in ways that would be misleading to children." - Specifically address the use of commercial messages in interactive games. The revised Guidelines require that "if an advertiser integrates a commercial message into the content of a game or activity, then the advertiser should make clear, in a manner that will be easily understood by the targeted audience, that it is an advertisement." The Guidelines review process has identified areas that require continued analysis. The NARC Board has requested further discussion of the issues of product placement in children's programming and the advertising of telephone services to children. To access a copy of the revised CARU Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children’s Advertising, please visit www.caru.org For more information, please contact w.gilroy@wfanet.org Source: Advertising Education Forum