Food companies sign EU ad pledge
Mark Sweney
UK Guardian
December 11, 2007
An alliance of food companies including Coca-Cola,
Nestlé, Mars and Burger King have signed a European
Union pledge to stop marketing junk food to children
under 12 years old.
The group of 11 companies, which represent more than 50%
of the food and beverage advertising spend in the EU,
have agreed to stop running junk food ads on TV, in
print and on the internet to under-12s by the end of
2008.
The alliance, which also includes PepsiCo, Kraft,
Unilever, Danone and Ferrero, have agreed not to market
products in primary schools, except where "specifically
requested by or agreed with the school administration
for educational purposes".
A number of the companies, such as Coca-Cola, Kraft and
Mars, have previously agreed a US responsible marketing
code around advertising to children.
The difference with this new programme, called the EU
Pledge, is that the 11 companies have agreed to have
independently verified monitoring of their reduction in
marketing, from January 2009.
"This is just part of the industry's response," said
Stephan Loerke, the managing director of the World
Federation of Advertisers.
"We have worked with the (European) commission and other
stakeholders in identifying a best practice model of
self-regulation, have reinforced codes of conduct and
are providing children with the tools to help them
understand and interpret advertising so that they are
able to make informed choices".
The "common commitment" forms part of the EU pledge,
that ties into an EU initiative on diet, physical
activity and health set up in 2005 by Markos Kyprianou,
the EU health and consumer protection commissioner.