Soda - Keeping Curious

As you may or may not know, new guidelines about how food is marketed to kids come into play in 2007, aimed at combatting childhood obesity.
Introduced by the government, the proposals will work on a voluntary basis for a while, with the onus being put on the food and marketing industries. Depending on how well they rise to the challenge, it’s likely that stricter legislation may well be introduced, especially for manufacturers and promoters of HFSS foods, in other words, foods with a high fat and sugar/salt content.

One of the measures, introduced by Ofcom, the broadcast regulator, and effective from 2007, will outlaw the use of celebrities or characters from films in adverts promoting HFSS foods to children under ten. As an agency, we’re already helping our clients tackle these changes, and it’s raised some interesting questions. Personally (and I’m speaking as a parent here too) I think these changes are a nod in the right direction but gloss over some of the wider questions the food industry and the government should be asking itself. Why not just go the whole way and produce better food, free of artificial additives or copious amounts of fat, sugar and salt?

Manufacturers do seem to be heading in this direction, with crisp manufacturers for instance, turning to healthier types of fat, and supermarkets promoting ‘healthier’ kids ranges, but ultimately it’ll take a huge shift in our current culture and way of life to really make inroads into reversing the trend towards childhood obesity. Until then, we’ve got a pretty interesting role to play, helping our food manufacturing clients take on the new responsibility the government has given them, in an ethical as well as financial way, whilst still remaining competitive. And who says ethical and competitive can’t go hand in hand, even in the contentious arena of the supermarket shelves?