The Quebec Coalition on Weight-Related Problems is calling for national legislation to end all advertising of unhealthy foods targeting children rather than counting on marketers to regulate themselves, following the release of a compliance report from Advertising Standards Canada earlier this week.
The ASC released the report on the Canadian Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, which limits advertising messages to kids under 12. Participating companies have agreed to commit 100% of child-oriented advertising to healthy food and lifestyle choices.
The report details the progress made last year by food and beverage companies, including Kraft, Mars Canada, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, which all joined the program when it first launched in 2007.
It identified only two minor compliance issues—one by Cadbury Adams and the other by Kraft Canada—which were immediately corrected by the involved participants, according to Janet Feasby, vice-president, standards, ASC.
However, Suzie Pellerin, director of an anti-obesity group called Coalition Poids, said the criteria varies by company and is therefore “hollow.”
“The report’s conclusions show well how the self-regulation is not an efficient measure to limit children’s exposure to the advertising of the products poor in nutritional value that are offered by the food industry. As part of this initiative, advertising to children remains allowed,” said Pellerin in a release.
She called for national legislation modelled after the Quebec Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits commercial advertising to children under the age of 13, based on strict criteria.
And while two compliance issues were identified by the ASC in its report, Pellerin said infractions committed by three other companies were omitted: General Mills, McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada and Burger King Restaurants.
The Quebec Coalition also cited Susan Linn, director of Harvard Medical School’s campaign for a commercial-free childhood: “Every company participating in the Children’s Advertising Initiative chose its own nutrition standards and has created its own definition of what is considered to be advertising directed primarily to children under 12 years of age,” she said. “But what we really need is a single set of standards across the border and bodies in the U.S. and Canada to enforce it.”
