Cap Code food and drink for kids

Food or soft drink product advertisements and children

47.6 Marketing communications should not condone or encourage poor nutritional habits or an unhealthy lifestyle in children.

47.7
(a) Although children might be expected to exercise some preference over the food they eat or drink, marketing communications should be prepared with a due sense of responsibility and should not directly advise or ask children to buy or to ask their parents or other adults to make enquiries or purchases. (see 47.4a).

(b) Marketing communications should neither try to sell to children by directly appealing to emotions such as pity, fear, or self-confidence nor suggest that having the advertised product somehow confers superiority, for example making a child more confident, clever, popular, or successful.

(c) Marketing communications addressed to children should avoid “high pressure” and “hard sell” techniques; they should neither directly urge children to buy or persuade others to buy nor suggest that children could be bullied, cajoled or otherwise put under pressure to acquire the advertised item.

(d) Products and prices should not be presented in marketing communications in a way that suggests children or their families can easily afford them.

(e) Marketing communications addressed to or targeted directly at children should not actively encourage them to eat or drink at or near bedtime, to eat frequently throughout the day or to replace main meals with confectionery or snack foods.

47.8 Marketing communications featuring a promotional offer should be prepared with a due sense of responsibility. Except those for fresh fruit or fresh vegetables, food or drink advertisements that are targeted directly at pre-school or primary school children through their content should not include promotional offers.

(a) Marketing communications featuring a promotional offer linked to food products of interest to children should avoid creating a sense of urgency or encouraging the purchase of excessive quantities for irresponsible consumption.

(b) Marketing communications should not seem to encourage children to eat or drink a product only to take advantage of a promotional offer: the product should be offered on its merits, with the offer as an added incentive. Marketing communications featuring a promotional offer should ensure a significant presence for the product. Marketing communications for fresh fruit or fresh
vegetable products are exempt from this restriction.

(c) Marketing communications for collection-based promotions should not seem to urge children or their parents to buy excessive quantities of food.

(d) Marketing communications should not encourage children to eat more than they otherwise would.

47.9 Licensed characters and celebrities popular with children should be used with a due sense of responsibility. Except those for fresh fruit or fresh vegetables, food or drink advertisements that are targeted directly at pre-school or primary school children through their content should not include licensed characters or celebrities popular with children.

47.10 Marketing communications should not give a misleading impression of the nutritional or health benefits of the product as a whole. Except those for fresh fruit or fresh vegetables, food or drink advertisements that are targeted directly at pre-school or primary school children through their content should not include nutrition or health claims.

47.11 Marketing communications should not disparage good dietary practice or the selection of options, such as fresh fruit and vegetables that accepted dietary opinion recommends should form part of the average diet.