Sainsburys: Active Youths

J Sainsbury PLC. (2016) J Sainsbury plc / Our commitments. Available at: http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/responsibility/our-sustainability-plan/our-commitments/ (Accessed: 11 January 2016).

We’ll encourage kids to lead a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

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WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

There are growing concerns about child obesity and activity levels with one in three children in the UK overweight and one in five obese. When we launched our Active Kids programme in 2005, it was about getting as many young people enjoying physical activity as possible. Over time we’ve evolved the programme to consider both ‘calories in’ and ‘calories out’, because it is important to maintain a balance of eating well and being active.

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Our Active Kids programme supports registered schools and clubs with equipment, experiences and education for cooking and sports. This year, two winning schools received £10,000 worth of new kitchen equipment through our Active Kids Superstar Cooks competition, which was run in conjunction with ready-made lesson plans that helped teachers educate students about the curriculum’s cooking programme.

The 2015 Active Kids voucher collection period resulted in the redemption of over £11 million worth of vouchers, benefitting more than 34,000 schools and clubs across the UK. Redemptions for healthy eating products grew by 42 per cent compared with 2014 as we helped more children learn about and enjoy a balanced diet. Prime Minister David Cameron also awarded the scheme with the prestigious Big Society Award, in recognition of our work in encouraging thousands of children across the UK to live healthier, more active lifestyles. We have now invested more than £160 million of our £200 million commitment to the scheme, to the benefit of over 47,000 schools and clubs.

 

WHAT WE'LL DO

1. We’ll continue to develop our Active Kids scheme, investing £200 million in activities for kids of all abilities.

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KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

• £10,000
  of new kitchen equipment won by schools through our Active Kids Superstar Cooks competition
 
• >34,000 
  schools and clubs across the UK benefitted from the 2015 Active Kids voucher collection
 
• >£11m 
  worth of vouchers redeemed from the 2015 Active Kids voucher collection
• 42%
  increase in voucher redemptions for Active Kids healthy eating products in 2015 compared with 2014
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
• >£160m
  invested in the Active Kids scheme to date

Tesco: Eat Happy Project

3 November, 2015

The Eat Happy Project reaches one million children

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Tesco has today announced that one million UK children have now been involved in the Eat Happy Project, the retailer's long-term commitment to help children gain the knowledge and skills they need to have a happy, healthy relationship with food.

The milestone comes just 18 months into the project, which was developed in response to new research that found 80% of children today were less healthy than their parents.

The Eat Happy Project was launched in March 2014 alongside an in-depth study highlighting a growing concern among British parents about their children’s relationship with their food. The study, undertaken by global consumer trends experts Future Foundation, also revealed that even though 90 per cent of children said they know which foods are healthy, fewer than ten per cent achieve their five-a-day target. More than half (52 per cent) believed potatoes count towards the total, and one in ten (10 per cent) counted carrot cake.

The study also found that two-thirds of parents believe children eat much more convenience food than they did as a child, and half said they feared the impact of their children’s diet on long-term health.

The Tesco Eat Happy Project takes education out of the classroom and actively shows children where their food comes from. Schoolchildren aged 4-11 have visited suppliers at their farms or factories and gone on in-store Farm to Fork trails at 787 Tesco stores UK-wide where specially trained colleagues provide practical demonstrations helping children explore fresh fruit and vegetables, taste cheeses, see how bread is baked and learn about the different species and origins of fish.

More than 18,000 pupils have also been transported around the world virtually using Google+ Hangouts for Online Field Trips, where they have talked to worldwide suppliers from banana growers in Costa Rica, to pasta makers in Naples.

The Tesco Eat Happy Project, however, does not just engage with children through schools. In January, a new partnership was launched with the Scout Association and since then almost 18,000 Cubs and Beavers have earned their Farm to Fork badge on the trails.

During school holidays, the Project invites parents to bring their children to free Let’s Cook classes in its stores in partnership with the Children’s Food Trust. To date these classes, teaching recipes from spaghetti Bolognese to veggie kebabs, have been held in 95 stores, with more than 7,000 children taking part. More than 10,000 children will also get the chance to learn to cook in after-school clubs set up through the partnership this term.

Rebecca Shelley, Group Communications Director for Tesco said:

“Our plans for The Tesco Eat Happy Project were always ambitious - through engaging one by one with a million children we have shown that we can play our small part in helping children have a more healthy relationship with food.  We want to do everything we can to serve our customers a little better every day, and this is an important part of that.”

The Tesco Eat Happy Project has now set its sights on new goals, aiming to provide the next million children with an Eat Happy Experience within twelve months as well as increasingly engaging with parents for activities that can be undertaken in the home.

Tesco PLC. (3 November 2015) Tesco PLC - Media - New Releases - The Eat Happy Project reaches one million children. Available at: http://www.tescoplc.com/index.asp?pageid=17&newsid=1237 (Accessed: 11 January 2016).

Primary Research: Supermarkets

As another form of primary research, my plan was to contact some of the larger supermarkets to ask them questions which will help me outline some of the more positive effects of food marketing. I was hoping they could outline some of the positive steps they have taken in the past or are currently taking in order to use food marketing in a positive way and to promote a healthy lifestyle.

I wrote to 6 different supermarkets including Marks and Spencers, Aldi, Morrisons, Sainsburys, Tesco and Waitrose. 

I asked the following:

Hi There,

I’m wondering if you could point me in the right direction. I’m currently a university student writing my final year dissertation focusing on food marketing to children.

I’m hoping to pursue a career in food marketing and so I’d like my essay to focus on the positives of food marketing, rather than the negatives which seem to be portrayed in the media a lot. So far, I have struggled to find enough content which portrays food marketing to children as a positive and so I was hoping I could gather some research by gaining knowledge from some large supermarkets.

Is there any chance you would be able to highlight any steps you have taken in the past or are currently taking in order to promote healthy eating and lifestyle to your customers in terms of advertisements, packaging, products, slogans or even where certain products are placed in stores.

I truly believe that food marketing has far more positive effects than negative and would really appreciate any help in gathering some information which will help back me up throughout my dissertation and give food marketing a much more positive reputation to the general public.

Thank you for your time,

Jessica Parry

email: jessica.plant@hotmail.co.uk tel: 07931535536

University of Cumbria - Year 3 BA(Hons) Graphic Design Student

Out of all 6 supermarkets, Waitrose, Marks and Spencers, Tesco and Sainsbury's got back to me. Aldi and Morrisons did not reply.

None of the supermarkets gave me any direct answers but they did give the following responses:

Waitrose

Hi Jessica, thanks for your message and interest in Waitrose.

I'm afraid that due to the number of requests we receive, we’re not able to respond precisely to every question we get.

You can find a wide range of information about Waitrose via the following link - www.waitrose.com/ourcompany/index.aspx which you may find of interest and should give you some ideas and information for your studies.

To download Waitrose Environment report please use the following link -www.waitrose.com/ourcompany/CSR.aspx

www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk contains downloads of the John Lewis Partnership brochure and Annual reports.

On the link below we have put together a Resources section on the John Lewis Partnership website to help you find out more about the retail industry. This includes a selection of the main trade associations, commercial information and news sources, Government sources, academic institutions and consumer interest groups that together should help you find what you need. You will also find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the Partnership - www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/resources.html

For Nutritional information our Nutritionist recommends the following links -www.nutrition.org and www.waitrose.com/food/healthandnutrition/index.aspx

Employment opportunities within the John Lewis Partnership can be accessed by the following link - www.waitrosejobs.com

On behalf of Waitrose I’d like to wish you every success with your studies. Thanks.

Sainsbury's

Hi Jessica, due to the number of requests we receive, we can't help you with a specific project. There is however, a wealth of information available about our company on our corporate website. http://tinyurl.com/bsxhves Liz

Tesco

Hello Jessica,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us via Facebook. That sounds like a very interesting topic to write on for your dissertation.

All of our publicly available information can be found on our Tesco PLC website which you can view by following this link: http://www.tescoplc.com/

Kind regards Matthew - Customer Care

Marks and Spencer

Hi Jessica, thanks for your message. We can't send anything direct but please follow this link to our Student Section: http://bit.ly/1ywtEkj. Merry Christmas, Donna smile emoticon

I plan to look into the links given in more detail and see if I can gather any answers this way.

Taste Tests (RESULTS)

As mentioned earlier, I wanted to complete two different taste tests on children to find out which type of marketing is most effective to children and if children think that a food tastes different depending on which packaging it comes from. I have now gathered my results to date which are based on 80 participants.

Before completing the taste tests, I ensured that parents gave permission for their children to take part and explained the tests to them, including the foods that were going to be used. They then had a choice whether or not their children could take part and they were also there to supervise.

Here is the letter which they received beforehand: 

Hi there,

My name is Jessica and I am a university student currently writing my final year dissertation on the subject of ‘Children’s Food Marketing’. I would like to complete two different ‘taste tests’ on children in order to gather research for my essay. The aim of my essay is to discover how food marketing is affecting children and their health—whether that be in a positive or negative way. I’m hoping to find more positives than negatives.

There will be two different tests in total and the aim of the tests is to discover A) which type of marketing is most effective to children, e.g television advertisements, free toys or popular cartoon characters and B) If children think that a food tastes different depending on which packaging it comes from. 

The first test will be to find out which type of marketing is most popular with children and will involve three different food products as follows:

- McVities Chocolate Digestive Biscuits.

- Rowntrees Fruit Pastilles

- Haribo Minions

Each child will be given a choice between the three products and has to choose one.

The first product will come with an accompanying television advertisement (shown on a tablet device). 

The second product will come with a free toy.

The third product will have a popular cartoon character on the packaging.

The second test will be to find out whether the appearance of a product effects the children’s idea of the taste of that product.

This test will involve three of exactly the same food product, packaged in three different boxes/packets. 

The food used will be a Cadbury Mini Animal Biscuit.

The first will have a plain packet.

The second will have a popular character on the packet.

The third will have a popular brand name on the packet.

Each child will taste all three of the products and then decide which one they thought tasted the best.

The results collected on the day will be used within my essay for university. 

If you would allow your child/children to take part in the above two tests, please could you sign the following consent form and confirm that they have no allergies to any of the foods listed:

The results were as follows:

TASTE TEST 1: The children are given a choice between three different foods and have to pick only one which they are allowed to then consume. Before the children are given the option, they have to watch a television advertisement for option 1, they see the free toy they will receive if they pick option 2 and finally, they see the packaging which option 3 uses.

The options were as follows:

Option 1: McVities Chocolate Digestive Biscuits (TV AD)

Option 2: Rowntrees Fruit Pastilles (Free Toy)

Option 3: Haribo Minions (Characters)

17.5% chose Option 1.

52.5% chose Option 2.

30% chose Option 3.

These results show that being given a free toy is the most popular form of marketing. Coming in second is popular characters and finally, television advertisements were the least popular form of food marketing. 

TASTE TEST 2: The children are given three different forms of packaging, each with the exact same food inside. They have to taste all three of the foods and tell us which one they thought tasted the nicest. 

The options were as follows:

Option 1: Plain packaging.

Option 2: Popular character on the packet.

Option 3: Popular brand name on the packet.

3.75% chose Option 1.

58.75% chose Option 2.

22.5% chose Option 3.

15% said that the foods all tasted the same.

This result shows that the most popular form of packaging was that with a popular character on the front. Brand names came in second place and plain packaging came last, as expected. However, 15% of the children asked figured out that the foods were all the same product which shows us that taste is still a strong contender to children's food choices.

Survey: Insight into children' food habits and diets. (FURTHER RESULTS)

The survey I created has since provided more results compared to my previous results post. It has now been completed by 100 people and so I feel the results are much more precise. Here are the new results broken down:

Question 1 asked: When shopping with your children, do they ask you to purchase certain foods for them?

24% answered Yes, most of the time.
47% answered Occasionally, they sometimes ask for certain things.
29% answered No, my children do not ask me to purchase certain products.

The majority of the children in these families sometimes ask for products in particular, but not always. There are almost as many children asking for products 'most of the time' as there is not asking for products at all, but the strong majority is that children are asking for products a percentage of the time.

Question 2 asked: If you answered Yes or Occasionally to question 1, do the foods your children ask for tend to be healthy options or unhealthier choices?

33% answered Healthy
12% answered Unhealthy
55% answered Both

Most children ask for a range of both healthy and unhealthy products, or they do not have a preference when it comes to choosing a food based on it's nutritional value. Some children ask for healthy foods specifically, whereas none of the children in question ask for unhealthy foods. These results tell me that children who are asking their parents for foods are not asking them for unhealthy foods specifically, most of them are asking for a range and therefore may not be taking into consideration whether or not they are 'good for them'. This is good to hear as it means that the reasoning behind them eating the unhealthy options is not down to them knowing that can be bad for them. 

Question 3 asked: Do you purchase the foods that your children ask for? 

8% answered Yes, I purchase the foods which my children ask me for.
66% answered Sometimes, I compromise and purchase certain foods which they ask for but not everything.
26% answered No, I purchase foods which I personally think are most appropriate.

The majority of children are getting a percentage of food which they are asking their parents/guardians for, but not everything. These results show that parents are giving in to their children's demands to a certain extent, but are compromising and not letting them have absolutely everything that they ask for. Only 26% buy foods that they personally think are most appropriate and only 8% buying everything that their children ask for. These results show that parents do still have a lot of control over what their children eat and they have the final say, not the food marketers.

Question 4 asked: Has a television advertisement ever made your children ask for a certain food product?

66% answered Yes, TV adverts have had an impact on my children wanting a certain food product.
34% answered No, TV adverts have never had an impact on whether my children want a certain food or not.

This shows that there are more children influenced by television advertisements than there are not influenced at all. This means that the advertisers taking to the television to advertise are getting their message out there loud and clear, and it's working too. It is one of the biggest platforms to advertise on and to get around the country fast and children seem to pay a lot of attention to this type of advertising. This could work in their favours if the foods being advertised on the TV were healthy foods that would have a positive effect on the children's health. 

Question 5 asked: Are your children more likely to want a certain food because it uses a certain character on the packaging/advertisements?

14% answered Yes, if the packaging features a character they like then they are more likely to want that food, regardless of the type of food.
54% answered Sometimes, foods featuring their favourite characters makes them more likely to want it, but it depends what type of food it is. 
32% answered No, the characters on the packaging has no impact on whether or not they want that particular food. 

Same as with TV advertisements, there are more children influenced by their favourite characters than there are not influenced at all. This proves that characters do have a big input on whether or not a child wants to eat a certain food. Although there is still 40% who are not influenced at all, these were the older children within the bracket (13-16) and so these results show that younger children (under 13) are more likely to want a product if it shows a character they favour. Another thing to be taken into account with these results is that the type of food that the character is featured on also matters, it is not enough on it's own to make the child want the product. Heinz have definitely overcome this problem by including almost every popular character on their food packaging. 

Question 6 asked: Which of the following is most likely to make your children want to eat a certain food?

11% answered A television advertisement.

22% answered The packaging of the product.

26% answered A free giveaway (e.g a free toy).
32% answered The taste of the food.

5% answered The appearance of the food.

4% answered Because it is good for them. 

Surprisingly, the taste of the food comes up most important in a child's decision to eat it. Free toys and product packaging is next in line before tv advertisements, the healthiness of the products and the appearance of the products. This shows that the most important thing about a food for a child is how it tastes, the other things are just bonuses, which are almost used as bribes in a way, in order to sway children towards a certain food. Again, this could be a good thing if we were 'bribing' children to choose the healthier options over the unhealthy ones. These results show that children don't really take into account whether or not something is healthy for them and they consider the taste of the product to be more important than the appearance.

Question 7 asked: If you make a packed lunch for your children, which of the following items are more likely to get eaten?

33% answered Sandwiches

31% answered Fruits

36% answered Snacks e.g. Crisps, Chocolate, Biscuits etc. 

This shows that it doesn't matter what type of food is put into a child's packed lunch, they don't pick particular items out and leave others, they mostly eat what they are given. This means that parents have more control over what their child eats whilst in school by packing their lunches for them. 

Question 8 asked: If your children had a choice whether they could eat a piece of fruit or have a sugary snack such as a chocolate bar, which would they be more likely to choose?

9% answered A piece of fruit, my children favour fruit snacks over sugary snacks.
37% answered A sugary snack, my children favour sugary snacks compared to fruit.
54% answered It depends, sometimes they would choose the fruit, other times they would choose the chocolate bar.

This shows that the majority of children don't have a preference when it comes to whether a food is healthy or not. They choose the foods they eat based on taste and not nutritional value. Although the results do show that 37% of the children in question prefer unhealthy, sugary snacks compared to fruit snacks, the majority still stands as impartial to a sugary snack vs fruit. 

Question 9 asked: Do your children's diets differ to yours when you were their age?

43% answered No, my children's diets are almost the same as mine when I was their age.
16% answered Yes, I used to eat a much healthier, balanced diet.
41% answered Yes, I didn't have as healthy a diet as what my children have.

These results show that children's diets have either stayed the same or improved compared to their parents diets at their ages. Only 16% said that their diets were healthier and more balanced than their children's are now, the rest are either the same or healthier than their parents was. This is a surprising result as I would have thought that parents had a much healthier and balanced diet when they were younger as all we seem to hear about lately is how children's diets are going down hill. On the other hand, however, if a parent had a poor diet as a child they should be more likely to make a conscious effort for their children to have an improved diet compared to them so that they don't encounter the same problems they may have experienced. Overall, these results show that parents consider their children's diets to be healthy and as far as they are concerned, they are doing right by them by choosing the foods they do. The real problem lies with deceiving advertisements when parents believe the foods are healthy, but they are in fact filled with excessive sugars.



Overall, the outcome of this survey has been successful in answering some of the questions I wanted clarifying. The majority of the time, parents have the final say in what foods their children have access to and so the power remains with them. Children are asking for certain products because they have seen a television advertisement, or it features a character they like, meaning that advertisers are in fact persuading children to eat foods based on gimmicks rather than actual nutrition. I've discovered that the taste of a food is even more important to a child than an advertisement, character or free toy. They take the taste of the food into account more than it's appearance or how healthy it is for them but are still influenced by those things in a smaller amount. They aren't taking into consideration the nutritional value of foods and aren't particularly swayed into eating/not eating a food because of it's healthiness. They don't have a preference when it comes to whether they eat a healthy snack or an unhealthy snack, they choose it based on taste value, packaging or promotional offers. Finally, the families which completed this survey found that their children's diets have either stayed the same as theirs or improved compared to theirs when they were younger, which is a positive result.

Saturday Morning Children's Television.

References: Batada, A. Dock, M. Wootan, M. Story, M. (2008) 'Nine out of 10 Food Advertisements Shown During Saturday Morning Children's Television Programming Are for Foods High in Fat, Sodium, or Added Sugars, or Low in Nutrients.', Journal of the american dietetic association, Vol 108, Issue 4, Pages 673-678.


A 2005 review by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies concluded that food marketing influences children’s food preferences, consumption, and health. Given the powerful influence of marketing on children’s diets, this cross-sectional study examined the types of foods, the nutritional quality of those foods, and the marketing techniques and messages used in food advertising during Saturday morning children’s television programming.

During 27.5 hours of programming in May 2005, 49% of advertisements shown were for food (281 food advertisements out of 572 total advertisements). The most commonly advertised food categories were ready-to-eat breakfast cereal and cereal bars (27% of all food advertisements), restaurants (19% of food advertisements), and snack foods (18% of food advertisements). Ninety-one percent of food advertisements were for foods or beverages high in fat, sodium, or added sugars or were low in nutrients. Cartoon characters were used in 74% of food advertisements, and toy or other giveaways were used in 26% of food advertisements. About half of food advertisements contained health/nutrition or physical activity messages and 86% of food advertisements contained emotional appeals.

The majority of foods advertised to children on Saturday morning television programs exceeds recommended levels of fat, added sugars, or sodium, or are low in nutrients, and as such, are out of balance with the foods recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Most advertised foods are high in added sugars (59% of food advertisements), total fat (19%), sodium (18%), and/or saturated and trans fats (17%). Moreover, few advertised foods are those that children should eat more often.

We found wide discrepancies between what health experts recommend children eat and what marketing promotes as desirable to eat. Although parents can model and encourage healthful eating, companies have large advertising budgets, market research, cartoon characters, and sophisticated marketing techniques to influence children’s food choices and preferences. However, recently a number of companies have been making changes to their policies for marketing to children. One approach by food and entertainment companies is the application of nutrition standards to determine which foods it will market to children. For example, Kraft and PepsiCo have developed nutrition standards for their respective Sensible Solutions and Smart Spot labels. Those company standards are similar to those used in this study. Kraft, General Mills, Kellogg, and the Disney Company restrict certain children’s marketing to only those products that meet their nutrition standards. (Kraft, Kellogg, and General Mills also abstain from advertising to children younger than age 6 years.) Health advocates have been encouraging all food companies, restaurants, entertainment companies, and others that market food to children to adopt strong nutrition standards and apply them to all food marketing to children, including on television, on the Internet, in schools, and on packaging.

Another interesting finding of this study is that many Saturday-morning children’s television advertisements include health messages alongside foods that are high in fat, sugars, or sodium, or low in nutrients. Though almost all of the food advertisements were for foods high in fat, sugars, or sodium, or low in nutrients, 42% of the advertisements had a health/nutrition message. For example, an advertisement for Airhead Fruit Spinners fruit-flavored snacks (Perfetti Van Melle, Milano, Italy) contained the message, “with real fruit flavor and vitamin C charged crystals.” Forty-seven percent of food advertisements had a physical activity message, such as an advertisement depicting children wakeboarding after eating Cheetos (PepsiCo Inc, Purchase, NY). A recent study found that food advertisements depict children engaged in physical activity significantly more frequently than other advertisements aimed at children (30). Although several food companies and trade organizations have launched programs to promote more healthful lifestyles (6), when coupled with foods of poor nutritional quality, health/nutrition and physical activity messages are likely to be misleading and perhaps do more to promote unhealthful eating than to promote health.

Food and nutrition professionals and others concerned about child nutrition and health can advocate, both personally and within their professional capacities, for more responsible food marketing to children. With clients, food and nutrition professionals can reinforce the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendation that families limit children’s screen time (including television, movies, and Internet) to no more than 2 hours each day. In addition, to achieve a more healthful balance of food messages to children, food and nutrition professionals can join others to work to limit the marketing of nutrition-poor foods in schools, as the American Dietetic Association has supported through local school nutrition and physical activity wellness policies (17). Food and nutrition professionals also can urge food companies to stop marketing low- nutrition foods to children through television, food packaging, the Internet, and other approaches, and instead increase marketing of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other healthful foods that children are under consuming. 


This article focuses on saturday morning children's television. This is one of the key timeslots where most children would be watching television and so food marketers will see this as an opportunity to promote as much as they can within a short space of time. 

Like many other readings, this article states that food marketing influences children’s food preferences, consumption, and health. There is no wonder that they are having such a huge influence when they are making use of every possible way they can to get their message across to children. 

This study found that the majority of foods advertised to children on Saturday morning television programs exceeds recommended levels of fat, added sugars, or sodium, or are low in nutrients. So, children are being promoted tonnes of unhealthy foods and hardly any healthy foods. Why aren't food marketers for healthy foods using these tactics? I'm sure it would make a lot of people happy if all of these sneaky promotional tactics were being used to promote healthy lifestyles compared to unhealthy junk food. 

There are health professionals out there giving advice on what they believe is best for children to eat, however, the marketers have a completely different concept on what they will promote as 'healthy to eat'. This makes it confusing for children as they are being convinced that the foods they are being promoted, and consuming, are healthy and good for them, just because the tv advertisement said so. There are an increasing number of policies in place where food marketers are trying to make small changes such as putting nutritional guidelines in place so they can't market anything too unhealthy directly towards children. They are also trying to convince people that their foods have some kind of health benefit, even when they are very unhealthy in every other way. This can be even more dangerous than not stating the health benefit at all as people may see this as an excuse to consume excessive amounts and rely on it. 

Overall, the article comes to a very common conclusion amongst my readings so far. It notes that changes need to be made such as more responsible food marketing to children, achieve a more healthful balance of food messages to children, limit the marketing of nutrition-poor foods in schools, urge food companies to stop marketing low- nutrition foods to children through television, food packaging, the Internet, and other approaches, and instead increase marketing of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other healthful foods that children are under consuming. 

Children and Obesity: The Role of Food Marketing.

References: Matthews, A. (2007) 'Children and obesity: a pan-European project examining the role of food marketing.', European Journal of Public Health, Vol 18, Issue 1, Pages 7-11.

Here is an extract from an article I found on what part food marketers play on childhood obesity. It is a european study which uses questionnaires and data-collection relating to food promotion to children on 20 european countries. Results showed that unhealthy foods such as savoury snacks and confectionary were the most commonly marketed and consumed items by children. Television marketing was found to be the most commonly used promotional medium, but in-school and internet marketing were seen as growth areas. Only a few of the 20 countries reported the use of media literacy programmes designed to counterbalance the effects of food marketing to children, which means there aren't many people out there who are fighting this battle. The pattern of regulation discovered during this research was ineffective and incoherent because of the different restrictions each country had. Some have tough bans in place and others have nothing at all. Most health, consumer and public interest groups supported the point that restrictions need to be put in place, whereas industry and media groups advocated self-regulation.

The article's recommendations include the amendment of the European Union’s Television Without Frontiers Directive to ban all TV advertising of unhealthy food to children, the adoption of a commonly agreed European Union definition of an ‘unhealthy’ food, and the establishment of a mechanism for pan-European monitoring of the nature and extent of food marketing to children and its regulation.

A recent estimate that 20% of school-age children in Europe are carrying excess body fat (with a quarter of these being obese), poses an increasing risk of them developing chronic diseases with a significant likelihood of some having multiple risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, Type 2 diabetes and other co-morbidities before or during early adulthood.1 These risks are not uniform between European member states with children at particular risk in the countries around the Mediterranean and in the British Isles (see figure 1), although rising prevalence rates are occurring in all countries. Within the enlarged European Union (EU) of 2006, there are estimated to be almost 22 million overweight or obese children (about 30% of all children), and this figure is increasing by around 1.2 million each year. Of these children, 5.1 million are obese, and that figure is rising by some 300 000 children each year.2 

Phase 1 focused on one aspect of the cause of obesity—the marketing of food to children, in particular examining ‘promotion’ as a central element within marketing. Its aims were to
(i) Undertake a literature search of relevant existing international evidence.
(ii) Organize EHN national co-ordinators to collect data from the 20 European project countries: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK. Information gathered related to food marketing to children, the regulatory environment and measures taken to compensate for any negative effects of the marketing.
(iii) Analyse the data and make recommendations about food marketing to children across Europe.

Defining unhealthy foods

In order to contextualize the nature of food marketing to children, co-ordinators were asked to report on any working definitions of unhealthy foods existing within each country. In countries where no definitions existed, co-ordinators reported their difficulty in agreeing what was meant by an ‘unhealthy’ food. Within the project there was a general assumption that such foods are high in fat, sugar or salt and that these foods are more likely to contribute to an unhealthy diet, but most countries had no working nutrient criteria which would have assisted such a definition.

Type and amount of food marketing to children
The data showed that food advertisements during children’s TV overwhelmingly promoted ‘unhealthy’ foods, with very little promotion of fruit and vegetables and other ‘healthy’ foods. The extent of unhealthy food marketing to children varied between countries with estimates ranging from 49% in Italy to nearly 100% in Denmark and the UK.
Advertisers spend a large and increasing proportions of their budgets on the food sector, illustrated by the following examples:

1. (i)  In the UK £743 million was spent on food and drinks advertising in 2003,4 with the total amount spent on food marketing increasing.5
   
2. (ii)  In Germany, 87% of total food advertising spend is on television advertising.6
   
3. (iii)  In The Netherlands advertising spending by the food industry as a whole grew by 128% between 1994 and 2003.7
   

Of concern was the volume of food advertising aimed at children. For example within the UK, children viewed an average of five television advertisements per day for Core Category pro- ducts (food, soft drinks and chain restaurants),8 the vast majority of which were for food items considered to be unhealthy in having a nutritional content high in fat, salt or sugar.5
Across countries, commonly used creative strategies used by food advertisers when targeting children included linking into children’s culture by referencing movies and their characters, and by using child-related appeals to play, fun, action-adventure, humour, magic or fantasy. Many advertisements make use of cartoon or celebrity characters.

Recent UK statistics suggest that though spending on advertising in the food sector may be increasing, the proportion spent on TV advertisements may be declining. Nonetheless, across countries where data was reported, the vast majority of food promotion was through television, with food promotion through radio, magazines and cinemas taking a low and possibly declining proportion of advertising spending. Schools, on the other hand, represented a growing marketing channel. Strategies included sponsoring events, linking food product purchasing to the provision of educational or sporting equipment often involving token collection schemes, and selling unhealthy food and drink products in vending machines. The Internet was also a new and growing medium, where creative strategies included cartoon-style games, competitions, educational materials and links to food company websites.

Attitudes towards food marketing to children
Reported data showed that health, consumer and other citizen groups acknowledged that obesity had many causes, but food marketing in particular was seen to play a significant role, thus raising the need to protect children in the interests of public health. The Danish Nutrition Council,9 for example, favoured restricting unhealthy food advertising to children as one element within a broader obesity prevention strategy. Similar groups favoured either banning or further restricting the marketing to children of foods high in fat, sugar or salt. Public interest groups also recommended other measures including nutrition and media education, taxing unhealthy foods and improving nutrition labelling.

On the other hand, the food and advertising industries defended their right to promote their products and they resisted proposed restrictions—attitudes which reflected their commer- cial aims. They opposed plans to ban food marketing to children, arguing for the removal of bans where they existed, and opposing the tightening of existing restrictions, warning governments that restrictions would harm trade and commerce. 

Across the EU, governments’ responses to these conflicting pressures have varied from tough regulations in a few countries to a more ‘laissez-faire’ approach in the majority of countries. In some countries, such as Germany, Spain and the UK, governments are trying to persuade the food and advertising industry to voluntarily restrict their activities, for example, by ‘responsible’ self-regulation and by challenging them to introduce social marketing techniques to promote healthier food. Governments in other countries are focusing on restricting food marketing in schools, for example, in Finland, where this influence is perceived as a key area of concern, and Greece, where a lack of agreed definitions for ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ foods is inhibiting efforts to remove unhealthy food products from schools. Where countries have already banned food marketing to children on TV, governments are focusing on other areas, e.g. Norway is advocating a ban on cinema advertising, and Sweden is calling for an international ban on TV advertising to children.

Co-ordinators reported counterbalancing measures which although designed to improve children’s health or specifically tackle childhood obesity, nevertheless were also perceived to combat the effects of food marketing to children. Measures reported included fruit and vegetable promotion, general educational measures focusing on food and health, media literacy and physical activity programmes.

Fruit and vegetable promotion schemes were reported by most national co-ordinators. Many of these schemes advocated the consumption of at least five portions of fruit or vegetables a day. Many fruit and vegetable promotion schemes operated in schools, offering educational programmes, information and materials, tasting sessions and free or low cost fresh fruit and vegetables.

Most countries reported a variety of measures to promote physical activity—including projects run by or sponsored by food companies. From the companies’ perspective, such projects boosted their public image and deflected attention away from marketing activities which promoted ‘unhealthy’ food.

It is clear that food manufacturers are increasingly using integrated and sophisticated marketing strategies to promote their products directly and indirectly to children, which has also been found in other international research.11,12 Global commercial marketing to children of food and drink is dominated by unhealthy products, with television as the prime medium for such advertising.13–15 The data here concurs with these findings, but there was some evidence that television is losing its dominance as in-school and internet marketing are growing.

Strategies used to counterbalance this effect included fruit and vegetable promotion, and food, health and physical activity education programmes. Media literacy programmes, often held up by the food industry as the means by which children can be helped to a critical understanding of advertising, were found in only a handful of countries and very few had been evaluated. None had been designed and implemented as an integrated programme.

The attitudes of stakeholders revealed varying levels of responsibility with regard to food marketing to children. There was widespread agreement amongst health, consumer and other public interest groups that food marketing to children should be restricted across Europe. These views juxtaposed with those of the food and media industries which, whilst recognizing the vulnerability of children, argued that self-regulation was more effective than statutory restrictions which would only limit economic growth. Government responses to these debates varied between some adopting tough restrictions and others who sought to persuade industry to act responsibly.

This study concurred with previous research in showing that most European countries have an incoherent patchwork of legal and voluntary controls. This situation compromises the efforts of some countries who have strong national regulations but who are nevertheless powerless to prevent commercial communications arriving in their country from beyond their borders. For example, Sweden and Norway have statutorily banned TV advertising to children but receive advertisements on cable and satellite TV broadcast from other countries. The first recommendation to remedy these inconsistencies would be the amendment of the EU’s Television Without Frontiers Directive to bring about a ban all TV advertising of unhealthy food to children. Such a move would protect the effect of bans within individual countries and extend this protection to the rest of Europe’s children. Additional measures to control ‘unhealthy’ food marketing in schools and on the Internet are also needed. 


The marketing strategies used to promote products directly to children is increasing. This wouldn't be such a problem if healthy food was dominating, but of course it isn't. Television is the most used platform for advertising to children, however it is starting to lose it's dominance as in-school and internet marketing is on the rise. I feel as though in-school and internet marketing is going to become even more persuasive then television as they have much more potential to do more and have the children interact with their promotions. With children using technology more and more, most of them have access to the internet throughout the day—especially in schools where they have computer access. 

There have been some efforts to counterbalance the effects of marketing to children such as fruit and vegetable promotion, and food, health and physical activity education programmes. I feel as though these programmes do help in raising the awareness to children that they do need to eat healthily and have a physically active lifestyle, especially now they aren't going out as much as they play computer games! There has also been a handful of countries that have media literacy programmes in place that aim to help children understand advertising and how it works. More definitely needs to be done, especially if countries only want self-regulation in place. 

There is a big problem for the countries which do impose bans on tv advertising to children. Of course, they have a ban in place and their own tv networks have to abide by these rules, but the countries have tv broadcasting from other countries which do not have these bans in place and do not have to follow the rules. This means that they are still being exposed to ads directed to children, even with their bans in place. This problem could be solved by every country having to follow the same ban and therefore no countries rules would be broken.