Foodwatch sounds the alarm: child marketing must stop!
Foodwatch, our country’s food watchdog, is on high alert. And rightly so. The organisation has made an irritating discovery. Violations of the rules surrounding child marketing are still being committed left, right and centre. Especially during this festive period. What’s going on?
Child marketing refers to advertising messages specifically aimed at children. The best-known form of child marketing, which you may still remember from your childhood, is the biscuits featuring Samson & Gert, Kabouter Plop and K3 on the packaging. Admit it, you absolutely wanted those when you were younger, didn’t you?
As a young child, you are drawn to products like these. You are not yet able to understand the commercial purpose behind marketing. That is precisely what makes child marketing a danger to children. Because when you realise that three-quarters of all food advertising in the Netherlands is for junk food… Then you understand that this is not good for children’s health. In 2023, 11.3% of 4- to 12-year-olds were overweight. That figure is obviously too high.
Your idol on the packaging
Since July 2020, licensed media characters have no longer been allowed on product packaging under the Dutch advertising code. These are mainly well-known children’s idols; figures that children look up to. Yet such children’s idols are still seen on packaging far too often. According to Foodwatch, this is due to ”weak self-regulation in child marketing”. There are ”no strict rules, no strict enforcement (and) no fines”, its website states. Producers seem to simply carry on regardless.
These companies don’t give a damn
The food watchdog is seeing this especially now, in December. Foodwatch spotted children’s advent calendars filled with chocolate at Amazon.nl, Bol.com, CandyXL.com and DrogiterijPlus.nl. The calendars feature characters such as Paw Patrol, Minions and Garfield. Characters that are extremely popular with children. The producers seem to give a damn about the rules laid down by the Dutch advertising code. And so the company’s interests seem to come (surprisingly!) before the consumer’s interests. Money over health. Not exactly a cheerful Christmas thought, is it?
On to the Advertising Code Committee
Foodwatch is especially pissed off because it already reprimanded Amazon.com and Bol.com last year. The food watchdog was proven right on every count by the advertising committee, after which the webshops promised to do better. They have clearly failed to keep that promise. Foodwatch is therefore taking the matter to the Advertising Code Committee again. The annoying thing is that action probably will not be taken until several weeks from now, well after the Christmas period. ”This makes it profitable for companies to flout the rules”, Foodwatch writes. The question is: when will self-regulation really come to an end, and will politicians in The Hague introduce a ban on child marketing?
Ruthless
Foodwatch has shown before that it can be ruthless when necessary. For example, it previously had Knorr stock cubes removed from supermarket shelves because they contained dangerous mineral oils. They are also not afraid to launch legal proceedings. They once did so over ‘pink slime’. Will Foodwatch’s complaint to the Advertising Code Committee have enough impact? We will probably know more in the new year, once the advent calendars have been opened and devoured.
Also read:
- 12 favourite sweets from your childhood that you can still buy (and where to get them)
- This is the number-one childhood trauma at dinnertime
- 12 favourite childhood food memories
Sources: Foodwatch, The Netherlands Nutrition Centre, Netherlands Youth Institute
