Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Original Article
  • Published:

Interventions and public health nutrition

The EU pledge for responsible marketing of food and beverages to children: implementation in food companies

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 69, pages 896–901 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Increasing political pressure on the food industry’s marketing activities stimulated the formation of the collective EU Pledge for responsible marketing of foods and beverages to children. The objective of the study is to evaluate the commitments made by companies in joining the pledge for the purpose of assessing its effectiveness in regulating signatory companies’ marketing activities.

Subjects/Methods:

Data on company commitments in relation to the EU Pledge were collected, analyzed and recalculated in order to enable comparison across companies and with general nutritional recommendations. Data on companies’ product portfolio and market orientation were collected from their most recent available annual reports. Data on the companies’ product profiles were generated via review of the companies’ main websites. Similar data were generated for a reference group of companies outside the EU Pledge.

Results:

Compared with a reference group of large food and beverage companies, EU Pledge signatory companies have a public image strongly based on products with appeal to children. The EU Pledge sets common standards for regulating signatory companies' marketing behaviour towards children. Further scrutiny of the companies' stated commitments revealed considerable variation in their actual content and in their de facto bindingness on the companies' marketing behaviour—for example, in the definition of target audience for advertising or in nutritional characteristics making products eligible for advertising to children.

Conclusions:

In order for voluntary self-regulation schemes such as the EU Pledge to be a credible alternative to public regulation of marketing behaviour, more transparency and stringency are needed.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. WHO Preventing Chronic Disease. A Vital Investment. World Health Organization: Geneva, 2005.

  2. White paper on a strategy for Europe on Nutrition, Overweight and Obesity Related Health Issues (COM 2007279 Final). Commission of the European Communities, Brussels. 30 May 2007. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2007:0279:FIN:EN:PDF (accessed on 25 September 2013).

  3. World Health Organization Set of Recommendations on the Marketing of Foods and Non-alcoholic Beverages to Children 2010: World Health Organization http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/publications/recsmarketing/en/index.html (accessed on 25 September 2013).

  4. Cairns G, Angus K, Hastings G, Caraher M . Systematic reviews of the evidence on the nature, extent and effects of food marketing to children: a retrospective summary. Appetite 2013; 62: 209–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. EU-platformEU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health, 15 March 2005 http://ec.europa.eu/health/archive/ph_determinants/life_style/nutrition/platform/docs/platform_charter.pdf (accessed on 13 May 2014).

  6. Hawkes C, Harris JL . An analysis of the content of food industry pledges to marketing to children. Public Health Nutr 2011; 14: 403–414.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Smith NC, Bhattacharya CB, Vogel D, Levine DI (eds). Global Challenges in Responsible Business. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2010.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  8. Gunningham N, Rees J . Industry self-regulation: an institutional perspective. Law Policy 1997; 19: 365–413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Coleman W D . Global public policy, associative orders, and business interest associations. In: Streeck W (ed). Governing Interests. Business Associations Facing Internationalization. Routledge: London. pp 199–218, 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Hoek J, King B . Food advertising and self-regulation: a view from the trenches. Aust N Z J Public Health 2008; 32: 261–265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Reeve B . Private governance, public purpose? Assessing transparency and accountability in self-regulation of food advertising to children. J Bioeth Inq 2013; 10: 149–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Wilde P . Self-regulation and the response to concerns about food and beverage marketing to children in the United States. Nutr Rev 2009; 67: 155–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Ronit K, Jensen JD . Obesity and industry self-Regulation of food and beverage marketing: a literature review. Eur J Clin Nutr 2014; 68: 753–759.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Kent MP, Dubois L, Wanless A . Self-regulation by industry of food marketing is having little Impact during children’s preferred television. Int J Pediatr Obesity 2011; 6: 5–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. King L, Hebden L, Grunseit A, Kelly B, Chapman K . Building the case for independent monitoring of food advertising on Australian television. Public Health Nutr 2013; 16: 2249–2254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Roberts M, Pettigrew S, Chapman K, Miller C, Quester P . Compliance with children's television food advertising regulations in Australia. BMC Public Health 2012; 5: 846.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Romero-Fernandez M M, Royo-Bordonada MA, Rodrigues-Artalejo F . Compliance with self-regulation of television food and beverage advertising aimed at children in Spain. Public Health Nutr 2010; 13: 1013–1021.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. EU—Pledge EU Pledge Nutrition White Paper. Brussels, 2012: http://www.eu-pledge.eu/sites/eu-pledge.eu/files/releases/EU_Pledge_Nutrition_White_Paper_Nov_2012.pdf accessed on 30 November 2014.

  19. European Commission. Implementation Progress Report on the EU Strategy on Nutrition, Overweight and Obesity Related Health Conditions 2010: http://ec.europa.eu/health/nutrition_physical_activity/docs/implementation_report_en.pdf accessed on 21 May 2014.

  20. IFBA International Food & Beverage AllianceA global commitment to action on the global strategy on diet, physical activity and health, letter to Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of WHO, May 13, 2008 https://www.ifballiance.org/sites/default/files/IFBA%20-%20DG%20Chan%28May%202008%29.pdf accessed 21 May 2014.

  21. Effertz T, Wilcke AC . ‘Do television food commercials target children in Germany?’. Public Health Nutr 2011; 15: 1466–1473.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. World Health Organization. WHO opens public consultation on draft sugars guideline—note for media. March 5, 2014 http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/notes/2014/consultation-sugar-guideline/en/ Accessed on 13 May 2014.

  23. World Health Organization Interim Summary of Conclusions and Dietary Recommendations on Total Fat & Fatty Acids, From the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Fats and Fatty Acids in Human Nutrition. 10–14 November 2008, WHO: Geneva http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/FFA_summary_rec_conclusion.pdf Accessed on 13 May 2014.

  24. Caraher M, Landon J, Dalmeny K . Television advertising and children: lessons from policy development. Public Health Nutr 2006; 9: 596–605.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Brinsden H, Lobstein T . Comparison of nutrient profiling schemes for restricting the marketing of food and drink to children. Pediatr Obes 2013; 8: 325–337.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Hebden L, King L, Kelly B, Chapman K, Innes-Hughes C, Gunatillaka N . Regulating the types of food and beverages marketed to Australian children: how useful are food industry commitments? Nutri Dietics 2010; 67: 258–266.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Roberto CA, Bragg MA, Livingston KA, Harris JL, Thompson JM, Seamans MJ et al. Choosing front-of-package food labeling nutritional criteria: how smart were ‘Smart Choices’? Public Health Nutr 2012; 15: 262–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Assmus G, Farley JU, Lehmann DR . How advertising affects sales: meta-analysis of econometric results. J Marketing Res 1984; 11: 65–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Sethuraman R, Tellis GJ, Briesch RA . How well does advertising work? Generalizations from meta-analysis of brand advertising elasticities. J Marketing Res 2011; 48: 457–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej, Frederiksberg C, Denmark

    J D Jensen

  2. Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade, København K, Denmark

    K Ronit

Authors
  1. J D Jensen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. K Ronit
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J D Jensen.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Supplementary Information accompanies this paper on European Journal of Clinical Nutrition website

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Jensen, J., Ronit, K. The EU pledge for responsible marketing of food and beverages to children: implementation in food companies. Eur J Clin Nutr 69, 896–901 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2015.52

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2015.52

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links