Stricter rules for advertising to children
Coop, Coca-Cola and eleven other members of the Swiss Pledge initiative will have to take stricter criteria into account from next year if they want to make advertising aimed at children.
Among other things, the advertised products must not contain too much sugar. From January 2015, a new nutritional model will apply to all members of the Swiss Pledge initiative, Swiss Pledge announced on Thursday. To be suitable for advertising to children under the age of twelve, products must contain a specified amount of "components to be promoted"; at the same time, they must meet the limits for "nutritional values to be limited." Only limited amounts of sugar, saturated fatty acids and sodium may be present. These were selected because there is sufficient evidence "that they may be of concern to public health," according to Swiss Pledge. The limits vary depending on the product category.
Thanks to the uniform nutritional value model, products within the same category can be compared in the future, as Swiss Pledge writes. At the same time, this should stimulate competition for the development of balanced products.
Swiss Pledge was founded in 2010 as a voluntary initiative with the aim of adapting advertising behavior towards children under twelve. Members are currently 13 companies, including McDonald's, Nestlé, Kellogg, Danone and Coop. Together, the 13 companies were responsible for 41 percent of food and beverage advertising spending in Switzerland last year. (SDA)
On the subject:
Children watch fewer food TV commercials (April 2014)
