Advertising to children in the EU

[Gary Ruskin]

Commercial Alert				January 17, 2001

Following is an article in yesterday's Financial Times about the debate
over marketing to children in the European Union.

http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/articles.html?print=true&id=010116001608

SURVEY - CREATIVE BUSINESS: Advertising and children
By Christopher Brown-Humes

Is Europe going to tighten its rules on advertising to children? Sweden,
which has just taken over the presidency of the European Union, would
certainly like to think so. Indeed, at the top of the cultural
priorities for the presidency, Sweden has put the issue of "protection
of minors from harmful media content". The topic will be brought into
focus when Stockholm hosts a seminar called "Children and young people
in the new media" next month. 

Advertising and children is an emotive subject - youngsters are seen as
being vulnerable to things they can neither understand nor afford.
Parents resent being pestered about the latest playground craze or
fashion must-have. A new twist to the debate in the UK came recently
with evidence of rising obesity among children - a trend that some
experts link with the promotion of foods that are high in fat, sugar and
salt. Sweden, commonly seen as the strictest European country in this
area, bans advertising aimed at children under 12 and does not allow
adverts before or after children's programmes. "Young children don't
understand what adverts are about. It cannot be a situation of fair
play," says Lars Maren, a senior adviser at the Swedish ministry of
culture. 

It is not just the Swedes who believe there is a case to answer. Gordon
Brown, chancellor of the exchequer, recently attacked the pre-Christmas
advertising blitz aimed at children. He believed it was unfair to poor
parents who could not afford the brand-name products their children
craved. Hillary Clinton, newly elected as a US senator, has said she
wants to stop "unfair" marketing to children. 

The UK code of practice, set out by the Advertising Standards Authority,
says children should be able to afford the products they see in adverts
- rather than rely on their parents. It adds: "No advertising should
cause children to believe that they are inferior to other children or
unpopular with them if they don't buy a particular product or brand." 

Cynics might say that creating such feelings is exactly what advertising
is meant to do. Mike Jempson, director of the media ethics charity,
Presswise, says: "Serious problems are generated when children believe
they control spending power: problems between children and children;
between children and parents; and between parents, because they don't
always agree on how to respond to children's demands." 

A number of European countries have already tightened their rules on
marketing to children. Greece, for example, bans all toy advertising on
TV between 7am and 10pm. But advertisers worried about further big
changes over the next six months have nothing to fear, according to
Maren. "We need a deeper and more thorough discussion. But there will
not be an opportunity to change anything during the Swedish presidency,"
he says. 

Instead Sweden is looking ahead to the EU's Television without Frontiers
directive, which is due to be amended by the end of next year. Sweden
believes there are two ways ahead: either tougher rules on advertising
for children in all European countries; or, when it comes to satellite
programmes that are beamed over borders, for the receiving country's
rules to be respected more than they are at present. Satellite
programmes get round Sweden's advertising ban because of the principle
of "homeland control". 

However, some pundits say it is impossible to isolate the influences on
children and that a walk in the shopping mall, or a crisp packet
wrapper, is as likely to influence them as an advert they see on
television. In this context, it is not just television that needs to be
policed, but the radio, newspapers, the internet and even billboards. 

The advertising industry is, not surprisingly, braced for battle.
Stephan Loerke, EU affairs consultant at the Brussels-based World
Federation of Advertisers, says it is "ridiculous" to suggest that TV
advertising alone is responsible for "pester power. Our society is more
complex than that." 

He points to the fact that many recent children's crazes in the UK were
not stimulated by advertising, but by other factors, including TV
programmes themselves. 

He also points to a study among 4,900 people in 20 European countries
that found that 86 per cent of parents did not think advertising was
among the top five influences on children. Parents, schools, families,
peers, and TV programmes all rated higher. "The best way forward is to
have a media-neutral, self-regulatory system," says Loerke. He argues
that the self-regulatory codes in place in the 15 EU states already do a
good job protecting children. "We think we have best practice in most
European countries." 

<----article ends here---->

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Gary Ruskin | Commercial Alert 
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