Children see fewer food TV commercials
Around 99 percent of the advertising spots from Swiss Pledge members met the criteria of the voluntary commitment in 2013. Member companies also achieved good results for ads in children's magazines and on brand websites.
The self-pledge aims to restrict the company's own advertising behavior towards children under twelve if defined criteria are not met. Swiss Pledge commissioned the market research company Media Focus with monitoring. All advertising placements were analyzed for compliance with the minimum criteria. In 2013, over 114,000 TV commercials were checked. Of these, 98.7 percent of the TV spots met the criteria of the voluntary commitment. Children's magazines were also reviewed throughout the year. The monitoring covered 83 issues; only two magazines featured an ad that did not comply with the rules, which corresponds to a value of 97.6 percent correct ads. Of the 39 member company brand websites reviewed, 87.2 percent complied with Swiss Pledge requirements, according to the release.
Katja Funk, Media Focus: "Swiss Pledge was met with good results in 2013. By adhering to the voluntary commitment, member companies are committing to responsible advertising practices towards children under the age of 12." Since the launch of Swiss Pledge in 2010, membership has doubled. Today, 13 national and international food manufacturers and foodservice companies are committed to the voluntary initiative. They are: Coca-Cola, Coop, Danone, Intersnack, Kellogg, Mondelēz, Mars, McDonald's, Nestlé, Pepsi, Procter & Gamble*, Unilever and Zweifel Pomy-Chips. The initiative is open to other market participants who commit to meeting the minimum criteria.
Swiss Pledge was positively evaluated in 2011 by the Federal Office of Public Health as part of the national health initiative actionsanté, and is the only program in Europe to date that has been accepted by a national authority.
