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Enterprise Featured Article
July 23, 2007
According to a BBC report, major fast food brands are getting around the laws that prohibit the promotion of unhealthy snacks online.
By Raju Shanbhag TMCnet Contributing Editor
Anxious parents always worried about the surfing behaviors of their impressionable kids. They worried about the sites they visited and they worried about the friends they made over the Internet. Now, the worried parents will have another reason to worry; bombarding of advertisements about the unsafe foods by leading companies over the Internet.
According to a BBC report, major fast food brands are getting around the laws that prohibit the promotion of unhealthy snacks online.
According to trade magazine New Media Age, fast food brands have found a new way to advertise unsafe food products to kids; games, videos and cartoons on their websites. New Media Age accuses brands such as McDonalds, Kinder and Haribo of exploiting a legal loophole in the laws. The seemingly harmless and child friendly videos and cartoons run on the web sites of these companies might have hidden messages that promote the unsafe foods by these companies, the report said.
According to Nic Howell, deputy editor of New Media Age, although the fast food brands may be adhering to the law they're clearly in breach of the spirit of the latest Committee on Advertising Practice (CAP) code. The issue of fast food brands advertising unethically to kids has been dealt in print and television before. But internet is a new field and laws are yet to curtail such practices.
Obviously, McDonalds begs to differ and it sees no problem with the games it has put up on its web site. According to a spokeswoman from McDonalds, the McDonalds web site clearly states that kids below 16 should take the permission of their parents before entering the Kids Zone. She also insisted that the focus of each game was the fun and not the menu choices they offered.
Another fast food brand, Haribo stated that “it goes to great lengths to ensure that all its marketing is conducted in a responsible manner.” It also stated that the company never positions its confectionery as anything other than a treat to be eaten in moderation as a part of a healthy diet.
Recently, social learning network provider Intuitive Media, carried out a survey in which 3,000 children were asked to appear for a poll in which 43% of respondents said they were more likely to eat a food or snack if they saw it online. 61% said they visited food sites. According to Robert Hart, managing director of Intuitive Media, even though companies claim that their websites are editorial content rather than marketing communications, the fact that most of the children base their decisions on these contents make the lines between the editorial content and the marketing communication blurred.
He called the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to close these loopholes and stop food brands exploiting these loopholes to make money.
But the ASA feels that it’s up to the industry to agree a mechanism to regulate online content.
Raju Shanbhag is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
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