A review of the potential impact of online advertising of food and drink to children is having to be relaunched after months of work by researchers failed to even discover whether children realised they were being advertised to while on the web.
The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) today embarrassingly revealed that a literature review by Family Kids & Youth, which it commissioned last year, in response to fears over the impact of advertising by fizzy drinks companies online and on videogames, had failed to come up with the conclusion necessary to decide if its rules on online marketing needed to be rewritten.
The findings of the independent literature review, published today, were clouded by “uncertainty” over the extent to which immersive techniques like “advergames” actually affected kids and whether children registered the brands while they were online and realised that they were being marketed to.
The review found that the extent and quality of the evidence base around the impact of online food and soft drink marketing to children is limited. Studies identified showed that products considered to be less healthy were being advertised through online channels, including social networks and mobile apps.
It conceded there were concerns that children might now be exposed to more advertising for less healthy products, but CAP admitted the study revealed little about how much of this advertising is actually seen by children, and said nothing about the impact of that exposure on behaviour or consumption levels.
CAP will now launch a new review to try to understand the commercial intent of online ads, with a view to publishing new guidance in Autumn 2015 and said it would conduct a monitoring exercise in 2015 to make sure online food and soft drink marketing to children complies with the “strict” rules it said were already in place.
CAP said that while it explores the issue further marketers should review their online marketing, and if in doubt, label it.
“If there is any doubt as to whether an online ad (e.g. an advergame) is recognisable to children as advertising, the marketing nature of the advergame should be made clear, for example, by labelling,” said the report, which also promised to provide more training for the industry. “While it remains open to considering new evidence in this important area, CAP thinks the current evidence does not merit changes to its food and soft drink advertising rules at this time,” said CAP in a statement.
“However, in light of the findings, CAP will undertake further work in the coming months to gain a better understanding of how immersive online environments affect children’s critical understanding of online marketing. The UK Advertising Codes are clear that ads must be obviously identifiable. This applies to all sectors, not only to advertising for food and soft drink products.”
Shahriar Coupal, director of CAP said: “The findings of the Review underline the importance of our balanced approach to setting the rules, particularly in sensitive areas where there are competing arguments. It’s crucial that we keep an active watch on new developments online to make sure our regulation continues to play an appropriate part in protecting children.”
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