Responsible advertising of food and beverage products to children: a shared goal, a shared solution

Since 2015, the mandate letters of the successive health ministers—Jane Philpott, Ginette Petitpas-Taylor, Patty Hajdu and currently Jean-Yves Duclos—reflected the government’s commitment to promote responsible advertising of food and beverage products to children. Industry listened to government and acted to establish a national standard with the aim of restricting advertising to children of food and beverage that exceed the thresholds of nutrients of concern. A coalition of Canada’s largest advertisers, food and beverage brands and manufacturers, and restaurants took a meaningful step to meet the government’s commitment based on mandate letters' directive. After four years of intensive consultations with government and a diversity of stakeholders, the Association of Canadian Advertisers; Canadian Beverage Association; Food, Health & Consumer Products of Canada; and Restaurants Canada announced the industry Code and Guide for the Responsible Advertising of Food and Beverage Products to Children (“Code and Guide”) on June 28, 2021. The code and guide include a commitment to full implementation on July 1, 2023, with a five-year review in 2028. The code's centrepiece is industry’s adoption of the Quebec model for prohibiting advertising to children under 13 years of age, which has been in place for 42 years. The Quebec model also inspired the analysis underpinning the determination of whether or not advertising is directed at children. The code and guide represent industry’s focused efforts to achieve the shared objective of a comprehensive and workable regime of food and beverage restrictions to children under age 13 that applies to all advertising, in any media, that meet or exceed Health Canada’s policy recommendations. They also include the introduction of a robust pre-clearance and enforcement regime administered by Advertising Standards Canada, the independent, not-for-profit organization that has been ensuring responsible and ethical advertising in Canada for over 60 years. Sadly, this work has its detractors. We cannot understand why these organizations, who backed the very same government efforts, will not support this industry initiative. Ron Lund is president and CEO of the Association of Canadian Advertisers. Handout photograph Canadian food and beverage companies and advertisers created one of the most comprehensive and progressive ad review requirements in the world. So why has Bill C-252, an Act to amend the Food and Drugs Act (prohibition of food and beverage marketing directed at children), tabled as a private member’s bill in the House on Feb. 9, 2022, been sent to the House Health Committee for study? The bill, also known as Child Health Protection Act, was sponsored by Liberal MP Patricia Lattanzio. During first and second reading debate, there was no reference to the code and guide for the Responsible Advertising of Food and Beverage Products to Children and industry’s commitment to do its part to address the issue. The code and guide are a turn-key solution with no cost to government and taxpayers. We strongly urge government to work collaboratively with industry to validate the new code and guide, to ensure compliance, and mandate a review in five years to ensure it is meeting the goals. This preferred approach would allow government to meet its mandate in a creative and cost-effective way—allowing it to focus on the day's other more pressing and critical matters. Why is the government allowing a private member's bill to be a surrogate for what should be studied government policy? It is astonishing and thus begs the question why legislators have not recognized the code and guide or industry’s comprehensive efforts. A collaboration between the federal government and industry makes so much sense at this time when we have so many unprecedented pressures in our daily lives. We can do better. Industry’s innovative code and guide provide Health Canada with the opportunity to deliver immediately on one of its top priorities under the Healthy Eating Strategy at no cost to Canadian taxpayers. We ask the federal government to welcome this moment and take a meaningful step to make the code and guide a national standard. By adopting the code and guide and working collaboratively with industry, the government would pave the way for a practical, well-considered and meaningful set of advertising standards, by taking advantage of a well-founded made-in Quebec solution, which would immediately benefit parents and children. We should seize this unprecedented opportunity now rather than proceed further will Bill C-252. For kids’ sake—let’s give the code and guide for the Responsible Advertising of Food and Beverage Products to Children a chance. Ron Lund is president and CEO of the Association of Canadian Advertisers. The Hill Times