What Regulatory Challenges Does Food Advertising Present?

Abstract

The concern about the status of childhood nutrition and health has channelled much of its attention to the promotional activities of the food (and soft drinks) industries. International bodies such as the World Health Organization have called upon national governments to examine the controls they have in place over the marketing activities of these industries. Calls for tighter regulation over food advertising have followed in the belief that this can play a major part in reshaping children’s food orientations. In addition to statutory regulations, the food and soft drinks industries have adopted voluntary codes of practice over their marketing strategies and these have resulted in self-imposed restrictions over where food advertising and marketing takes place, how much of it there is, and the types of appeals that are used. Critics have accused industry codes of failing to impose sufficiently comprehensive restrictions on advertising to children(Kunkel et al, 2004; Hastings et al., 2006). There are also wider questions we can ask about the effectiveness of any of these codes of practice. As marketing migrates increasingly to the internet, new promotional techniques have emerged that fall outside existing codes and regulations(Hawkes & Lobstein, 2010). It is also important to consider the potential importance of consumers’ own understanding of advertising and nutrition. In an increasingly crowded and complex marketing environment, should consumers become more self-sufficient in their abilities to resist the temptations of certain types of food advertising(Livingstone & Helsper, 2004, 2006) ?