“Walking the Walk” of Responsible Marketing Commitments: What Is the Best Path for Food and Beverage Advertisers?
Daniel Range, Vice President, Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative and Children’s Confection Advertising Initiative, BBB National Programs
Food advertisers compete in the marketplace and recognize it is important to ensure that advertising to children be done responsibly. However, as the saying goes, talk is cheap. Responsible companies proactively “walk the walk,” taking action that puts their commitment to responsible advertising into practice.
But what is the best way for food and beverage companies to do so?
Because changes to those policies require only company action, they can be quickly updated in response to changes in the company’s operations or the marketplace.
The internal nature of company policies and codes of conduct, however, limits the strength of the responsible marketing commitment the company seeks to demonstrate. For example:
Laws and regulations uniformly apply to all food and beverage advertisers and, unlike internal company policies, they are backed by the oversight and enforcement of a government agency that compels compliance and fosters accountability and transparency.
But while laws and regulations might force all companies to walk the path of responsible marketing to children, would it be the right path?
CFBAI unifies the separate commitments of each food and beverage advertiser under a common set of responsible advertising standards by which all CFBAI participants voluntarily abide. These standards, known as CFBAI’s Core Principles, align participant individual commitments to maximize their impact on the overall advertising landscape and fill a gap where no standards of this kind existed before.
The Core Principles are collectively developed by CFBAI participants, so they are tailored to the food advertising landscape but retain the flexibility of company self-governance to quickly adapt to marketplace changes and product evolution. For example, over the years CFBAI has been able to update its Core Principles to address new forms of digital media more quickly than if such changes had to go through a lengthy legislative or regulatory rulemaking process.
Indeed, it is the independent program administration of CFBAI by BBB National Programs that proves to stakeholders that CFBAI participants are “walking the walk.” Not only are all participant commitments made publicly available on CFBAI’s website, but BBB National Programs regularly monitors the marketplace and annually reports on each company’s compliance with their marketing commitments.
An example of “soft law,” this system of industry self-regulation allows CFBAI to showcase the companies that have made meaningful commitments to responsible child-directed food and beverage advertising while also holding them accountable to their marketing commitments through transparent reporting—elements often cited as lacking by critics of company self-governance efforts.
The formula of independent self-regulation—balancing the flexibility and adaptability of company self-governance with the accountability of laws and regulations—has proven effective in changing the landscape of child-directed food and beverage advertising.
Most of the 21 leading food and beverage companies that currently participate in CFBAI no longer advertise any food or beverages to children. As a result, substantially less food and beverage advertising is directed to children today than before CFBAI’s formation in 2007.
Through their voluntary CFBAI participation, food and beverage advertisers are “walking the walk” of their commitment to helping improve the landscape of food and beverage advertising to kids. Sign up to learn more about joining this community of responsible advertisers.
Food advertisers compete in the marketplace and recognize it is important to ensure that advertising to children be done responsibly. However, as the saying goes, talk is cheap. Responsible companies proactively “walk the walk,” taking action that puts their commitment to responsible advertising into practice.
But what is the best way for food and beverage companies to do so?
Company Self-Governance
Many companies adopt internal marketing policies or codes of conduct that incorporate responsible marketing principles – including with respect to marketing to kids – that exceed what laws or regulations require. These internal policies are customized to the company’s business and provide flexibility and adaptability.Because changes to those policies require only company action, they can be quickly updated in response to changes in the company’s operations or the marketplace.
The internal nature of company policies and codes of conduct, however, limits the strength of the responsible marketing commitment the company seeks to demonstrate. For example:
- Internal company policies or codes of conduct are self-governed, meaning the company oversees its own compliance with the commitments. This aspect of a company “grading its own homework” raises questions about the company’s actual compliance with its commitments.
- Since a company’s marketing policies apply only to its own advertising, the impact of the company’s unique commitments on the overall landscape of child-directed advertising may be minimal.
Government Regulation
Citing these limitations of company self-governance efforts, advocates for government regulation of food advertising argue that only “hard law” options found in legal and regulatory restrictions can ensure that food advertisers “walk the walk” of responsible child-directed advertising.Laws and regulations uniformly apply to all food and beverage advertisers and, unlike internal company policies, they are backed by the oversight and enforcement of a government agency that compels compliance and fosters accountability and transparency.
But while laws and regulations might force all companies to walk the path of responsible marketing to children, would it be the right path?
- Laws and regulations typically impose an inflexible “one size fits all” approach that may not be appropriate for the variety and complexity of food companies.
- Government regulations are produced by a legislative and regulatory process that is slow to adapt to inevitable marketplace changes and the fast pace of product evolution.
- Government oversight and enforcement can be costly and resource-intensive once implemented.
- Government restrictions on food and beverage advertising would have to navigate First Amendment protections that would likely limit their scope.
A Better Way: Independent Self-Regulation
Independent industry self-regulation initiatives such as BBB National Programs’ Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) enable food and beverage advertisers to “walk the walk” of their commitment to responsible child-directed marketing. CFBAI supplements the flexibility and adaptability of company self-governance with the accountability and clear standards of laws and regulations.CFBAI unifies the separate commitments of each food and beverage advertiser under a common set of responsible advertising standards by which all CFBAI participants voluntarily abide. These standards, known as CFBAI’s Core Principles, align participant individual commitments to maximize their impact on the overall advertising landscape and fill a gap where no standards of this kind existed before.
The Core Principles are collectively developed by CFBAI participants, so they are tailored to the food advertising landscape but retain the flexibility of company self-governance to quickly adapt to marketplace changes and product evolution. For example, over the years CFBAI has been able to update its Core Principles to address new forms of digital media more quickly than if such changes had to go through a lengthy legislative or regulatory rulemaking process.
Indeed, it is the independent program administration of CFBAI by BBB National Programs that proves to stakeholders that CFBAI participants are “walking the walk.” Not only are all participant commitments made publicly available on CFBAI’s website, but BBB National Programs regularly monitors the marketplace and annually reports on each company’s compliance with their marketing commitments.
An example of “soft law,” this system of industry self-regulation allows CFBAI to showcase the companies that have made meaningful commitments to responsible child-directed food and beverage advertising while also holding them accountable to their marketing commitments through transparent reporting—elements often cited as lacking by critics of company self-governance efforts.
The formula of independent self-regulation—balancing the flexibility and adaptability of company self-governance with the accountability of laws and regulations—has proven effective in changing the landscape of child-directed food and beverage advertising.
Most of the 21 leading food and beverage companies that currently participate in CFBAI no longer advertise any food or beverages to children. As a result, substantially less food and beverage advertising is directed to children today than before CFBAI’s formation in 2007.
Through their voluntary CFBAI participation, food and beverage advertisers are “walking the walk” of their commitment to helping improve the landscape of food and beverage advertising to kids. Sign up to learn more about joining this community of responsible advertisers.