On 18 July 2007, 11 major food companies announced the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, under the banner of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. Signatories to the initiative make a number of pledges to change the balance of food and beverage products they market to children.

 

The initiative is a major development in the field, as the companies involved account for an estimated two-thirds of US children’s food and beverage television advertising expenditures in 2004.

 

The initiative was welcomed by many commentators and stakeholders, though scepticism as to its practical significance remains in activist and some academic quarters. Importantly, the initiative received praise from politicians, such as Senator Tom Harkin, who are leading federal initiatives to tackle food marketing to children, most notably the Federal Communications Task Force that is to release recommendations on the Media and Childhood Obesity in the coming weeks.

 

The Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative is unique in its approach, which combines a set of common guidelines with a number of company-specific pledges.

 

- Restricting advertising to children <12 to products that meet a number of nutritional criteria or cease advertising to this age group altogether.

- Companies that continue to advertise to children will restrict the use of licensed characters to products that meet better-for-you criteria, and to Websites promoting healthy lifestyles.

- All companies have committed to refrain from advertising in elementary schools.

- All companies pledge not to use product placement in movies or other editorial content primarily directed to children under 12.

- Some companies have chosen not to advertise at all to children under a certain age: 6 and 12

- Others have pledged to advertise only products that meet certain nutritional criteria. These criteria are company-specific, although they usually reflect international/US dietary guidelines.

- Individual companies have chosen their own criteria for defining the target audience for their marketing communications. While some only generally refer to “content and media primarily directed at children”, others specify audience share parameters. However, these differ from company to company and from one age group to another (30%, 35%, 50%). Others still have established their own list of media channels that they consider to be targeted at children. Some list a range of criteria on which the definition would be based, without giving one prominence over another.

- The timing for implementation of the commitments differs from company to company, although the latest date is end-2008. Some of the companies have already implemented their pledges.

- Although all company pledges were announced as “US pledges”, some are known to be global in scope.

 

WFA, through the Responsible Advertising and Children Programme (www.responsible-advertising.org), is a firm supporter of these voluntary pledges and has communicated a more detailed overview and breakdown of each individual company’s commitments to RAC members. For more information on work advertisers are doing on a global level, please contact w.gilroy@wfanet.org