A common will for responsible advertising practices (case on principle 3)

"Self-regulation by industry delivers tangible results. But more importantly it allows to engage in a dialogue both within industry to sign up additional companies to a pledge, as well as with stakeholders to find common ground in addressing childhood obesity. The Belgian Pledge has become a reference in the field of responsible marketing and inspired the public sector to create a marketing forum between private and public sector."

Jeroen Langerock, Coca-Cola Communications Director Belux

In May 2007, the European Commission adopted a “Strategy for Europe on nutrition, overweight and obesity related health issues”. In this White Paper, the Commission outlined a strategy for Europe to tackle unhealthy lifestyles and imbalanced diets. The launch of the EU Pledge (www.eu-pledge.eu), an industry initiative to change food and beverage advertising to children in the EU, is a key contribution to this objective.

To mirror this approach at national level and to give food companies essentially focusing on the Belgian market the possibility to step in, the Belgian Pledge was launched in September 2012 in a joint initiative of FEVIA (the Federation of the Food Industry), COMEOS (the Federation for Commerce and Services) and UBA, (the Union of Belgian Advertisers).

                            

With the Belgian Pledge (www.belgianpledge.be), there is a common will among food companies and retailers to act responsibly when advertising and marketing to children under twelve. It is through this joint initiative and with more than 30 companies’ members, that corporate accountability will become even more concrete and visible. The quantitative commitments in the Belgian Pledge come on top of the existing food advertising code, the latter having a more qualitative character.

By subscribing to the Belgian Pledge companies give proof of their strong commitment to promoting healthy and balanced diets.  The results of the Belgian pledge will be subject to independent monitoring by a consultancy, as is also the case for the EU Pledge. The outcome of this monitoring will be made public and be debated with all stakeholders involved.

Results:

Companies, often members of KAURI who signed the pledge are Coca-Cola, Colruyt, Unilever, Kraft Foods, Mars Belgium, Pepsico Belux, Delhaize, Spadel, etc...

1. No advertising on television/radio, in printed press or on the Internet (third party and own websites) for children under twelve years for all food or beverages that do not meet specific nutritional criteria based on sound scientific evidence and/or national nutritional guidelines and international standards.

2. No communication on products distributed in primary schools, except for educational purposes and upon request or with the consent of the school principal.

It is a common minimum standard that allows general control and establishes a joint responsibility. Each company is free to apply its own standards and indeed go beyond these common rules. The Coca-Cola is not advertising any of its brands  to children under the age of 12, regardless of their nutritional composition..

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