Food Industry’s Self-Regulation Failed

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As part of the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), which was implemented in 2009, seventeen leading food companies agreed that (1) child-directed ads would only advertise “healthier” foods and (2) licensed characters would be limited to “healthier” foods.

Character-based advertising is an exceptionally powerful form of persuasion aimed at children.  Latino children are particularly vulnerable to food and beverage marketing because of their high levels of media exposure, which has been demonstrated by researchers  as well as disclosed by major food companies.

The problem with self-regulation is:

• Not all food companies participate
• Standards for defining “healthy” foods vary
• There are no standards for “limiting” use of licensed characters
• In addition to television, advertising also includes websites, social media and mobile apps

According to this study of televised food ads, 100% of the products featured met all of the “healthy” nutritional standards specified in each company’s pledge.  However, these standards include many nutritionally deficient and calorie dense foods that are categorized as Whoa foods according to the Go/Slow/Whoa rating frameworks.  Which means they are unhealthy.

Also, according to this study, there were no notable changes in televised food ads.  Prior to industry self-regulation, 79.4% of food ads fit in the Whoa category (unhealthy) compared to 80.5% after self-regulation.  Additionally, prior to industry self-regulation, 13.0% of food ads included a licensed character compared to 11.6% after self-regulation.

Lack of change suggests that industry self-regulation is inadequate in reducing marketing of unhealthy foods to Latino children.

Click here to read Evaluating Industry Self-Regulation of Food Marketing to Children.