When combined with advertising and children the issues around food become far more complex. It is important that responsible advertisers are able to have a clear voice in the public and regulatory debates. ISBA is that voice.
Advertisers of food and drink are very well aware of the public interest surrounding their messaging. ISBA's emphasis on responsible advertising and our support for self-regulation and the CAP and BCAP codes underlines our work.
How we work
Our food and soft drinks members form the Food and Drink Advertisers working group. It is this group that is the advertiser's starting point for any rule changes that eventually arrive at CAP and BCAP. ISBA is the advertiser’s voice on both committees of advertising practice as well as key members of the ICC Advertising & Marketing Commission – the owners of the global ad codes. The AA based Food Advertising Unit (FAU) brings together advertisers, media and agencies.
We work closely with the Food & Drink Federation and the British Soft Drinks Association on all issues but especially on food content and labelling issues where they naturally take the lead.
EU and global issues are the focus of ISBA’s membership and active involvement in the World Federation of Advertisers and the ICC. Through them contact is maintained with the EU institutions and the WHO.
Actions
ISBA is a signatory of the Government’s Responsibility Deals, a supporter of Business4Life, and a member of
the Department of Health’s group on a Voluntary code on food marketing. Our Working Group members keep the current codes under review and help revise and amend the rules.
EU-pledge is the leading food advertiser’s response to the EU Commission's challenge to use advertising to support parents in making the right diet and lifestyle choices for their children. Through the WFA it has the active support of ISBA. The pledge was made in 2007 and extended in November 2011 to cover brands' own websites, bringing the pledge into line with the UK CAP rules.
Members are subject to annual monitoring. The latest report for 2011 by Accenture Media Management shows how the world’s biggest food brands have significantly changed the products they advertise to children in the European Union since 2005. The results demonstrate how brands are either voluntarily pulling out of or only advertising “better for you” products during children’s programming and that children are being exposed to significantly less advertising for all food products across all programming.
Comparing data from 2005 with 2011, European children are exposed to 79% less advertising for foods that don’t meet company “better for you” criteria in children’s programmes and 29% less for these products across all programmes. The results are based on an examination of 753,299 spots broadcast in France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia in 2011.