Brussels, 17 March 2008 –The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) believes that recent calls by consumer groups for an international code on food marketing are unhelpful, as they ignore and do not build on the far-reaching commitments advertisers have already made to promote healthier diets and lifestyles. Consumers International’s and the International Obesity Task Force’s (IOTF) proposals overlook the extent to which industry’s far-reaching initiatives are already changing how and what is advertised to children.
The WFA has been at the forefront of promoting best practice for responsible marketing to help encourage healthy lifestyles. WFA is currently:
- Strengthening advertising standards globally on the basis of a best practice model for effective self-regulation agreed with regulators, consumer groups and public health groups: this is to ensure that industry is capable of policing the enforcement of its rules effectively.
- Implementing strengthened food advertising codes of conduct globally, on the basis of ICC Codes[1]: this is to ensure that food marketing does not encourage excessive or unbalanced consumption or unhealthy lifestyles.
- Promoting and facilitating industry initiatives to help companies promote healthier choices for children: through programmes such as the US[2] and Canadian[3] Children’s Food and beverage Advertising Initiatives and the EU Pledge[4] programme, the major international advertisers have committed to refraining from marketing to children under 12 all products that do not meet high nutritional standards. Implementation of these commitments is being independently monitored and verified.
Big advertisers are increasingly adopting global food marketing policies in line with these industry programmes. This will mean that regional initiatives will de facto apply in all markets where the global advertisers operate. These companies represent a significant share of the food advertising market in most countries.
However, advertisers strongly believe that further regulatory restrictions on advertising will be counter-productive: innovation for healthier products goes hand in hand with marketing. There is a clear consumer demand for healthy options to which industry is increasingly responding. Marketing is essential to communicate innovation to consumers.
Stephan Loerke, WFA Managing Director, said: “Obesity requires a holistic societal response. The industry has made great strides in regulating itself and promoting responsible marketing is part of this effort. However, it is inconceivable that an ad ban will be a magic bullet that will fix the obesity problem. Instead, we should continue harnessing advertising to help promote healthier lifestyles.”
The WFA is not opposed to sensible international recommendations for effective regulation and self-regulation of food and beverage marketing. But Consumers International and IOTF are proposing a blunt instrument that is totally unsuited to fix a complex problem: an advertising ban is a questionable tool to achieve healthier lifestyles. Furthermore, a global system to categorise foods as “healthy” and “less healthy” is unreasonable in the face of the enormous diversity in food cultures that exists globally.
“Consumers International and IOTF should see that advertisers are already committed to only market the healthier options to children”, concluded Loerke, “But we need to base policy choices on evidence: all the evidence shows that special advertising rules may be warranted for children up to the age of 12. Beyond that age children are fully capable of understanding the persuasive intent of advertising and have the necessary cognitive tools to assess it critically.”
FOR ALL PRESS ENQUIRIES, please contact Malte Lohan on m.lohan@wfanet.org or call 0032 (0)2 502 57 40.
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