Children's food fight moves online
Updated: 2007-08-01 07:03
The dreamy video montage that the conference on marketing to children seemed
designed to bring a tear to every advertiser's eye. "Let's take a look at the
way it used to be," said the British event's chair, veteran marketer Philip
Spencer, before adding a tongue-in-cheek, "in the good old days."
Beamed on to a big screen in a conference room in the basement of a London
hotel were clips of classic adverts from across the decades. Most of them
contained scenes of young children demanding their mothers buy them candies,
chips and instant meals. "If we could still do that sort of thing, I'm guessing
none of you would be here now," said Spencer.
After decades of subtly encouraging children to become
their promoters, many of the best-known purveyors of junk food are facing leaner
times with lawmakers from Washington to Canberra looking for higher ethical
standards for adverts aimed at children. 
In the United States 11 of the biggest food companies, including MacDonald's
and PepsiCo, last month pledged to stop advertising foods which did not meet
certain nutritional standards to under 12s.
While in Australia the opposition Labor Party has taken aim at companies such
as MacDonald's who tie their products with kids movies like the Shrek series.
Opposition leader Kevin Rudd has promised a Labor government would ban the use
of characters such as Shrek to market food and drinks to children.
In the UK marketing to children on TV is now more difficult than almost any
other country in the world, after Britain's media regulator Ofcom tightened
regulations earlier this year, banning TV adverts for any foods high in fat,
salt or sugar "in or around programs that are likely to be of particular appeal
to children aged 4-9".
From January 1 next year, the ban will be extended to programs aimed at all
under-16s.
But advertisers and food companies are looking to hit back.
Why they want to keep the business alive is a no-brainer: in the UK alone
last year children are estimated to have spent $8.4 billion of their parents'
money, an increase from $7.8 billion in 2005, according to the charity
Childwise.
And new communications technology offers new ways to keep a grip on this
lucrative market. The Internet and mobile phones are rapidly coming to the
center of advertisers new plans.
Haribo, the German candy company, behind Gummi Bears, has launched a website
called Fun Planet, full of child-friendly games advertising its products. While
the website of the lunchbox favorite Cheestrings, which has a childrens' quiz
asking questions such as, "To keep teeth healthy, what is the best food to eat
at the end of the meal? An apple or a Cheestring?" (The answer is a Cheestring.)
And it is not just on the Internet that can be used to sell products to
youngsters - a recent British study found that 75 percent of teenagers would
happily receive adverts on their mobile phone in exchange for free calling
credit.
The American TV station Channel One Network delivers adverts interspersed
with teen-orientated news bulletins. While in Scotland, soda manufacturer AG
Barr, maker of Irn Bru, has caused controversy by sponsoring school canteens -
changing the menu to mimic the "meal deal" formula used by fast food joints.
Some can't see anything wrong with companies providing much-needed cash for
schools, but others can't see what's right with it - or with the way
advertisers' are embracing new technology.
Whatever the marketers say, many adverts are "clearly" aimed at kids, says
Richard Watts, of the UK's Children's Food Campaign. "Industry likes to claim
that it is advertising responsibly, but the truth is that it is just moving away
from TV and on to the Internet and text messages ... and stopping parents being
able to monitor what children can see."
China Daily - The Guardian
(China Daily 08/01/2007 page9)
China Daily PDF Edition