First sugar-free Easter on UK TV as chocolate ads are pushed past 9pm | Advertising
The UK will have its first Easter without the traditional barrage of TV adverts for chocolate eggs and hot cross buns, as a ban on junk food advertising makes the sweetest tradition of the year a sugar-free viewing experience.
New regulations, which came into force earlier this year, ban products high in fat, sugar and salt from appearing in television advertisements before 9 p.m., as part of efforts to combat growing childhood obesity.
It means this year the Cadbury Creme Egg – of which more than 200 million are consumed during the post-Christmas ‘season’ until the end of Easter – will not appear in TV adverts before 9pm.
The UK advertising industry voluntarily chose to start adhering to the new rules from October, creating the first ‘healthy’ Christmas TV adverts on television, and the impact on broadcasters’ advertising revenues has been brutal.
Television advertising spending by confectionery and snack brands fell by almost half year-on-year between October and February, according to a study carried out for the Guardian.
An analysis of the vast majority of companies advertising all products falling under the government’s “unhealthy foods” regulations shows that overall TV ad spending is down at least 15% year over year.
Industry bodies and broadcasters argued that the ban was more political communication than effective policy. ITV chief executive Carolyn McCall and former Channel 4 boss Alex Mahon previously pointed out that the government’s own research showed the number of calories saved would be 1.7 a day, or around a third of a Smartie.
“Product advertising and marketing is a key consideration in tackling childhood obesity,” said a spokesperson for ISBA, the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers. “But successive governments have treated bans or restrictions as a quick fix… legislating based on headlines, not evidence. »
Health advocates say the regulations don’t go far enough after the food industry won a concession to continue allowing “branded” advertising, as long as the ads don’t show an “identifiable” product that violates junk food rules.
Advertisers such as Lindt have followed the rules by running ads featuring the Maître Chocolatier, who promotes his brand but does not feature any of the 14 products in the Lindor line.
“The policy is riddled with loopholes that allow the industry to continue to promote unhealthy products like Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Caramel or McDonald’s McFlurries,” said Fran Bernhardt, of campaign group Sustain. “Aside from a few advertising tweaks, this Easter will look a lot like Easters before. The industry will continue more or less as usual.”
Campaigners say big food companies are compensating for the ban – which also extends to paid online advertising at any time of day – by increasing their marketing budgets on other media.
Sources from media agencies say outdoor media such as billboards and billboard sites, which are only subject to the junk food advertising ban if they are located within 100 meters of premises such as schools or leisure centers, as well as radio, have been the main beneficiaries of the TV and internet ban.
Although the new regulations have been in force for less than three months and the UK’s advertising watchdog has only received a small number of complaints which need to be assessed to determine whether they actually break the rules, a battle is already brewing over the likely introduction of new restrictions.
Current regulations are based on a nutritional profiling model created in the early 2000s to assess whether a product is “junk food”. In 2018, an updated model was developed but it was not introduced.
On Wednesday, the government, which announced it would likely adopt the new model, launched a consultation aimed at banning from next year a much wider range of products deemed too high in fat, salt and sugar.
The Food and Drink Federation said that as it stands, the updated model would ban the advertising of products such as 100% fruit juice, many cereals including Kellogg’s Bran Flakes, Ambrosia rice pudding pots, the Mr Kipling Delicious and Light range and Doritos, which parent company PepsiCo spent millions to reformulate to make them healthier to meet existing advertising rules.
The ISBA spokesperson said: “What goes into our food is important, but the updated nutrient profiling model threatens to discourage the investment that companies have made in changing what we eat and drink. Many products that have not been deemed ‘unhealthy’ will be banned.”
“A holistic plan would also think about how we encourage consumers to eat and buy healthier foods, promote food education and create a more active population. These are the things that will really make a difference, rather than always taking the easy way out by imposing even more restrictions on advertisers.”
