Transcript Document

Overview of Television
Food Advertising to Children
Championing Public Health Nutrition Conference
Brian Cook, PhD
October 22, 2008
How is Children’s Advertising Regulated?
 Primarily regulated by industry itself
 Advertising Standards Canada
 Broadcast Code for Advertising to Children
 Overarching federal and provincial regulations also
apply
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Food and Drugs Act (Health Canada)
Competition Act (Industry Canada)
Ontario Consumer Protection Act
CRTC also has role
Industry Self Regulation
 Avoidance of direct harm, marketers must not exploit
children’s credulity, lack of experience or sense of loyalty
 No more than 4 minutes of TV ads per half hour
 “…any commercial message scheduled for viewing during the
school-day morning hours should be directed to the family,
parent or an adult, rather than to children”
Industry Self Regulation
Gaps
 Aims to prevent direct harm and promote trust in ads
rather than specifically address public health concerns
 Does not address cognitive limitations of young children
 Does not address overall exposure, only individual ads
 Focused on traditional ads, not Internet and others
 Regulatory process lacks transparency
Canadian Children’s Food and Beverage
Advertising Initiative
Recent industry voluntary changes
 8 companies will not direct ads to children under 12
 8 companies will direct 100% of children’s ads to
“healthier” dietary choices
Canadian Children’s Food and Beverage
Advertising Initiative
Gaps
 Products defined as
“healthier dietary choices” for children:
 Narrow definition of children’s programming
 30-50%+ of audience must be <12
 Quebec law uses 15%+
Canadian Children’s Food and Beverage
Advertising Initiative
Gaps
 Restrictions on licensed
characters in ads does not
apply to advertiser-generated
characters
 Ban on school food ads
excludes fundraising
initiatives, displays, public
service messaging and
educational programs.
X
vs
TV Food Ads to Children Global Project
 12 country TV ad research project, coordinated by
Cancer Care Australia
 Top children’s channels recorded (Jan 2008) in Alberta,
Ontario and Quebec
 4 days of TV programs coded, 6am-10pm
 Ads coded for:
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Product
Food type (healthy vs unhealthy)
Promotional characters
Premium offers
Significance
 Last children’s TV ad analysis in Canada – 1991
 Industry argues children’s TV ad expenditure very small
in Canada
 Access to official TV ad data very expensive for NGOs to
do analysis
Teletoon and YTV
 Top ranked Canadian children’s
specialty TV networks
 Teletoon reaches 2.6 million child
viewers per week (age 2-11)
 “YTV consistently dominates the top
20 ranked kid shows with 15 of the
20 top ranked shows for kids 2-11
and 6-11.”
- www.corusmedia.com/ytv
Preliminary Results
Television Ads - Teletoon & YTV Networks
Children’s Programs in Children’s Peak Viewing Times
Retail
3%
Toiletries
6%
Entertainment
17%
Pharmaceutical
2%
Cell
PSAs
Phone
3%
2%
Other
2%
Education
1%
Food
37%
unhealthy
95%
Toys
27%
healthy
5%
Sample: 41 hours of programming – January 2008
Preliminary Results
Television Ads - Teletoon & YTV Networks
Children’s Programs in Children’s Peak Viewing Times
high sugar, low fibre
breakfast cereals
28%
unhealthy
95%
fast food
restaurants & meals
24%
high fat, sugar and/or
salt spreads, soups &
pastas
24%
healthy
5%
snack foods, sugar
sweetened fruit bars
24%
Sample: 41 hours of programming – January 2008
Preliminary Results
Television Ads - Teletoon & YTV Networks
Children’s Programs in Children’s Peak Viewing Times
Ratio of Unhealthy Food Ads to Healthy Living PSA
Preliminary Results
Presence of Advertising – Weekday Mornings
Teletoon
6:00am
6:30am
7:00am
7:30am
8:00am
8:30am
9:00am
9:30am
10:00am
10:30am
11:00am
11:30am
YTV
Preliminary Results
Television Ads - CTV (Ontario)
NON-Children’s Programs
Pharmaceutical
6%
Household
Equipment/
Furniture
7%
Retail
3%
Toiletries
6%
Utilities
3%
Travel
6%
Financial
7%
Education
2%
Household
Cleaners
2%
Pet Products
1%
Clothes
1%
unhealthy
56%
Food
19%
Entertainment
8%
PSAs/ Charities
9%
Automobiles
9%
Other
11%
Sample: January 17-20, 2008
healthy
44%
Preliminary Results
Television Ads - CTV (Ontario)
NON-Children’s Programs
Fruit juice and
fruit drinks
Snack foods,
1%
sugar sweetened
High sugar
fruit & vegetable
.Full cream dairy
and/or low fibre
products
1%
breakfast cereals
6%
3%
Sugar sweetened
drinks including
soft drinks
7%
Vegetable
products
(no added Meat &
Breads, rice,
sugar) alternatives
1%
pasta
1%
7%
Fruit products
(no added
sugar)
11%
Low fat dairy
39%
Low fat
sandwiches,
salads & soups
13%
Low sugar/ high
fibre breakfast
cereals
13%
High fat, sugar
and/or salt
spreads, soups &
pastas
7%
Chocolate and
confectionery
23%
Fast food
restaurants/
meals
53%
Baby food
15%
Healthy Food Ads
Sample: January 17-20, 2008
Unhealthy Food Ads
Summary
 Children’s ad self-regulatory system has significant gaps
 Recent industry initiatives ineffective
Preliminary Study Findings
 TV food ads to children dominated by products that
undermine parents’ and public health professionals’
efforts to promote healthy diets and physical activity
 TV food ads in non-children’s programming feature much
higher percentage of healthy foods
Overview of Television
Food Advertising to Children
Championing Public Health Nutrition Conference
Brian Cook, PhD
October 22, 2008
[email protected]
416-338-7864