Food and beverage manufacturers and restaurants voluntarily tighten restrictions for marketing to children after researchers called for increased oversight last summer when they discovered two-thirds of kids saw branded content for candy, fast food and other unhealthy options on YouTube.
As of Jan. 1, companies participating in the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), under the industry watchdog BBB National Programs, pledged to advertise only products that meet specific nutrition criteria to children over newer forms of digital media, including streaming platforms, podcasts, video sharing and gaming platforms.
The commitment includes advertising through the use of paid influencers.
The CFBAI is a voluntary industry initiative that launched in 2006 to encourage healthier dietary choices for children by limiting advertising by participating companies to children 12 years and younger for food that did not meet nutrition standards, including limits for calories, saturated fat, sodium and total sugars per serving. The nutrition criteria also require advertised products meet key nutrients and food groups.
Since then, the standards have been updated multiple times to strengthen the nutrition standards so they align with the Nutrition Facts label and changes in dietary guidance.
Participants, including Coca-Cola, Campbell’s, General Mills, Hershey, Kellanova, Kraft Heinz and other CPG and fast food businesses, agree to apply the standards to programming with an audience of 30% or more children across media platforms, including TV, radio, print and Internet.
While digital media has always been included in the CFBAI, the types and extent to which children engage with it has expanded dramatically since the initiatives core principles were last updated about five years ago, according to the BBB National Programs.
The updated core principles also “clarify a commitment by participants to reasonably use available and appropriate digital tools like exclusion lists and audience targeting to mitigate serving food and beverage advertising intended from older audiences to children,” the BBB National Programs added in the update.
Exposure may be limited, but challenges linger
Since the pledge began, child-directed food advertising has reduced substantially, according to the BBB National Programs, which noted children saw 96% fewer food ads on children’s TV programming in 2022 versus 2013. In addition, it said, about 80% of participants do not advertise any food or beverages in media primarily directed to children.
And yet, branded food content continues to slip through, with a recent study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics finding three-quarters of children see branded food content on YouTube.
The research revealed gaps in oversight, including exposure within videos in which lifestyle influencers introduce the products. It also found children saw branded food in thumbnails, only 17% of which qualified as ads.
While the CFBAI pledge covers the use of paid influencers, it distinguishes between advertising and user-generated content in which the participating brands or products are not materially connected to the creator.
The discrepancy leaves room for continued exposure, leading some public health advocates to question whether voluntary restrictions are sufficient to protect children from unhealthy food marketing.
