Advertising regulator announces plans to impose stricter rules on junk food ads directed at children
The advertising regulator is considering introducing new rules for brands targeting children with ads for food and soft drinks high in fat, salt or sugar.
The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) will launch a public consultation into whether stricter rules are needed in advertising of such products, citing its reason for doing so as a response to “changes in children’s media habits and evolving advertising techniques”.
The regulator says it will work with key consumer, campaigning, public health and industry organisations in preparation for launching the public consultation in early 2016. Based upon a “background of concern about children’s diets” the consultation will ask stakeholders whether new rules over advertising targeted at children are needed.
Tougher rules would build on those currently administered by the Advertising Standards Authority(ASA), which state that food and soft drink ads must not promote poor nutritional habits or an unhealthy lifestyle to children. The rules also prohibit celebrities and licensed characters from appearing in ads for food and soft drinks high in fat, salt or sugar.
CAP says the move reflects the “growing consensus, shared by public health and industry bodies, about the role of advertising self-regulation in helping to bring about a change in the nature and balance of food advertising targeted at children”.
The consultation follows on from a recent wave of attacks on sugary products such as a Jamie Oliver documentary titled Sugar Rush which looked at the relationship between diabetes and soft drinks high in sugar. This came at the same time Coca Cola ran online and print ads to promote how it's working to reduce the amount of sugar free products, such as Coke Zero and Diet Coke, which it produces.