The UK will have its first Easter without the traditional barrage of TV ads for chocolate eggs and hot cross buns as the ban on junk food advertising makes the sweetest tradition of the year a sugar-free viewing experience.
New regulations, which came into force at the beginning of the year, prohibit products high in fat, sugar and salt from appearing in TV ads before 9pm, as part of efforts to tackle rising childhood obesity.
This means that this year the Cadbury Creme Egg – more than 200m of which are eaten in the “season” post-Christmas until the end of Easter – will not be appearing in TV ads before 9pm.
The UK advertising industry voluntarily chose to start adhering to the new rules from October, making for TV’s first-ever “healthy” Christmas TV ads, and the impact on broadcasters’ advertising revenues has been stark.
TV advertising spending by confectionery and snacks brands almost halved year-on-year between October and February, according to research conducted for the Guardian.
An analysis covering the vast majority of firms that advertise all the products that fall under the government’s “less healthy foods” regulations show that overall TV ad spend is down at least 15% year-on-year.
Industry bodies and broadcasters have argued that the ban is more political PR than an effective policy. The chief executive of ITV, Carolyn McCall, and former Channel 4 boss, Alex Mahon, previously pointing out that the government’s own research showed that the number of calories saved would be 1.7 a day, about a third of a Smartie.
Governments have been accused of ‘legislating on the basis of headlines, not evidence’. Photograph: Robert Billington/The Guardian
“The advertising and marketing of products is one consideration for helping tackle childhood obesity,” said a spokesperson for ISBA, the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers. “But successive governments have treated bans or restrictions as a silver bullet … legislating on the basis of headlines, not evidence.”
For health campaigners, the regulations do not go far enough after the food industry won a concession to continue to allow “brand” advertising, as long as the commercials do not show an “identifiable” product that breaks the junk food rules.
Advertisers such as Lindt have adhered to the rules by running ads featuring the Master Chocolatier, which promotes its brand but does not show any of the 14 products in the Lindor range.
“The policy is riddled with loopholes which allow industry to continue to advertise branding for unhealthy products like Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Caramel or McDonald’s McFlurries,” said Fran Bernhardt, of the campaign group Sustain. “Aside from a few tweaks to adverts, this Easter will be much like Easters before. Industry will continue more or less as usual.”
Campaigners argue that big food companies are compensating for the ban – which also extends to paid online advertising at any time of the day – by upping marketing budgets on other media.
Media agency sources say that outdoor media such as billboards and poster sites, which are only subject to junk food ad bans if they are located within 100 metres of premises such as schools or leisure centres, and radio have been significant beneficiaries of the TV and online ban.
Although the new regulations have been in place for less than three months, and the UK advertising watchdog is understood to have only received a small number of complaints that have to be assessed to see if they actually breach any rules, a battle is already brewing over the likely introduction of further restrictions.
The current regulations are based on a nutrient profiling model that was created in the early noughties to assess whether a product is a “junk” food. In 2018, an updated model was developed but it was not introduced.
On Wednesday, the government, which has said that it is likely to adopt the newer model, launched a consultation which would see a far wider range of products deemed to be too high in fat, salt and sugar banned from next year.
The Food and Drink Federation said that as it stands the updated model would ban the advertising of products including 100% fruit juices, 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 reformulating to make healthier to meet the existing ad rules.
The ISBA spokesperson said: “What goes into our food is important, but the updated nutrient profiling model threatens to discourage the investment which companies have put into changing what we eat and drink. Swathes more products which have not been considered ‘unhealthy’ will be barred.
“A holistic plan would also think about how we incentivise healthier eating and buying by consumers, promoting food education, and creating a more active population. They are the things that will really move the dial, rather than always taking the easy path of yet more restrictions on advertisers.”
