Television advertising of food and drink products to children
28 March 2006
As part of its efforts to reverse increases in childhood obesity and ill-health due to dietary imbalance and inadequate exercise, the Government would like to restrict the advertising and promotion of food and soft drinks high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS foods) to children. The Government has asked Ofcom to consider proposals for strengthening the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) TV Advertising Standards Code as it applies to the advertising of food and soft drinks to children.
On 28 March, Ofcom announced a ten-week consultation on television advertising of food and soft drink products to children. Ofcom has proposed three policy options that contain, firstly, volume or scheduling restrictions on TV ads for either HFSS foods or for all food and soft drinks and, secondly, content restrictions that apply to all food or soft drinks TV ads.
Ofcom asked BCAP to draft the content restrictions that would be used in the consultation. Without knowing what the volume and scheduling restrictions would be, but knowing that they would exist, and after consulting its members and the food and soft drinks industry, BCAP has drafted rules and guidance notes for the Ofcom consultation.
BCAP has discussed its content restrictions with Ofcom. Both BCAP and Ofcom believe that, in the context of the consultation options for volume or scheduling restrictions, the proposed content restrictions represent a proportionate response to the Government's requirements.
Click here to read the content proposal.
In its consultation, Ofcom has stated that the content restrictions that BCAP has proposed both are in line with other initiatives that the food industry has taken to move away from advertising HFSS products to younger children and would reinforce the scheduling or volume restrictions by ensuring that young children would not be exposed to TV ads that:
- promote poor nutritional habits or an unhealthy lifestyle;
- promote excess consumption;
- promote the pestering of parents;
encourage the purchase of food or soft drinks by using licensed characters or promotional offers;
- promote consumption purely to get a promotional offer;
- make unsubstantiated nutritional, health or other claims or include nutritional or health claims targeted at pre-school children.
The consultation closes on 6 June 2006. The full consultation document can be found by following the link below:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/foodads/