FAU expresses concerns about advertising recommendations in Health Committee Report

The Food Advertising Unit (FAU) expressed concern today that the Health Select Committee Report into Obesity published this week makes recommendations about advertising based on significant inaccuracies about advertising and the regulation of advertising.

"We welcome the Committee's in-depth and wide-ranging approach to the complex problem of obesity, and we support many of their recommendations", said Jeremy Preston, Director of the FAU. "In particular, we agree that advertising can play a role in promoting healthy eating, healthy living and behavioural change". However, the Report's recommendations on advertising are based on some fundamental errors as follows:

The Committee says that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) was "ineffective" because it approved the Walkers' Wotsits campaign, but the ASA's remit is for nonbroadcast advertising and therefore they had nothing to do with this TV campaign.
The Committee claims to have uncovered "cynical exploitation of pester power", citing a Media Strategy Brief for Walkers’ Wotsits, but this fails to take into account the evidence to the Select Committee given by the agency concerned, AMV. The agency explained that the reference had no impact whatsoever on the final television ad, which did not contain any "pester power" elements. This was subsequently confirmed by the relevant regulator for TV advertising, the Independent Television Commission.
The Committee suggests that the influence of advertising on diet is considerable. In fact, the evidence shows that advertising is a minor influence on specific food choice, and this is supported by the Hastings' review for the FSA, which quantifies this at 2% and does not find it is an influence on overall diet or obesity.
The Committee cites the advertising ban to children in Quebec and Sweden but fails to acknowledge the fact that obesity rates in those countries are growing nonetheless and are similar to neighbouring countries/territories.

Jeremy Preston said "The FAU feels that in order to make constructive recommendations on advertising practices these aspects need to be fully understood. We will continue to seek to work constructively with other stakeholders in tackling obesity, and hope that this report will not create a further barrier for industry to be part of the solution".

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Notes to editors

1. The Food Advertising Unit (FAU), based in the offices of the UK Advertising Association is a centre for information, communication and research in the area of food advertising, particularly television advertising to children. The FAU represents media, manufacturers and agencies with an interest in food advertising.

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