ASA Reveals Advertisers Strongly Compliant With Junk Food Ad Rules
The ASA has revealed that advertisers in the UK are complying with strict rules introduced last year over junk food advertising to children.
The ASA monitored 759 ads across TV, cinema, online, posters and direct mail for its first compliance report, to see whether advertisers were observing the rules introduced last summer (see Ofcom To Phase In HFSS Restrictions).
Of the ads monitored, less than 1%, were found to breach the advertising codes, and none fell foul of the new food and drink ad restrictions.
Under the newly tightened rules, food and drink ads should not encourage poor nutritional habits or an unhealthy lifestyle. They should not pressure children or pester parents to buy products, and promotional offers should be used with a “due sense of responsibility”.
Two of the ads that fell foul of the advertising code ran on TV and four were from other media.
“The industry has responded to government and consumer concern about childhood obesity and the advertising landscape has changed as a result,” said Christopher Graham, the ASA director general.
The compliance team assessed 292 TV ads, 377 press ads, seven direct mailings, 20 online ads, 33 posters, three cinema ads and 27 circulars.
The research will provide ammunition to an embattled advertising and broadcasting industry, which is facing repeated calls for more draconian restrictions.
Among these is a renewed effort by health campaigners to persuade the government to introduce a pre-9pm watershed ban on junk food advertising (see Which? Renews Call For 9pm Watershed On HFSS Food Ads).
The ASA compliance research looked only at the actual content of ads, not the volume or scheduling of commercials.
Baroness Buscombe, chief executive of the Advertising Association, welcomed the results of the compliance report.
“The findings of the Advertising Standards Authority’s Food and Soft Drink Advertising Survey clearly demonstrate how positively the industry has responded to the new rules introduced in 2007 and how firmly they are acting within both the spirit and the letter of the code,” she said.
“This follows Ofcoms announcement in December that there are clear signs the new rules are having the intended effect on reducing the amount of food and drink advertising that children could be exposed to on television.”
ASA: 020 7580 5555 www.asa.org.uk Advertising Association: 020 7828 2771 www.adassoc.org.uk