The food pyramid meets the regulatory pyramid Obesity prevention and responsive regulation of the...

The food pyramidmeets the regulatory pyramidObesity prevention and responsiveregulation of the food industry

Belinda Reeve

The advertised diet

• Sugary breakfast cereal• Soft drinks• Savory snacks • Confectionary• Fast food

http://www.paulspond.com/hugesmile/newspyramid.html

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Responsive regulation: the regulatory pyramid

Adapted from Ayres and Braithwaite (1992)

Regulation of children’s television advertising

Children’s Television Standards 2009

• Apply during, before and after C and P programs designed specifically for children

• Prohibit advertising that is misleading, deceptive or untruthful

• Establish restrictions on scheduling and frequency and content

• Restrict marketing practices including premium offers, prizes, use of characters

Industry Codes of Practice

• Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice, AANA Code of Ethics, Code for Advertising and Marketing Communicationsto Children, Food and Beverages Code

• Adopt CTS prohibitions and restrictions • Extend them to all broadcasts and all

advertisements ‘directed to children’ • Advertisers must not promote an inactive lifestyle

or unhealthy eating or drinking habits

Responsible Marketing Children’s Initiative

• Prohibits advertising of certain foods to children under 12 unless promoting health dietary choices/healthy lifestyle

• Companies to voluntary comply with set of principles and restrictions on marketing techniques

• Companies to develop and implement Company Action Plans

Responsive regulation’s limitations

• Cannot help with industry-specificscheme design problems – For example: limited scope of CTS

• Does not question presumption ofself/co-regulation– Can self-regulatory regimes ever effectively

control children’s food advertising?

Conclusions

• Proposed regulation of television food is co-regulation with background threat of government intervention

• Responsive regulation can be used to further refine the scheme

• But cannot deal with scheme’s specific ‘content’ problems

• Most important problem is that the scheme’s goal does not fit with reducing food advertising