French ad body to sign "obesity" charter
21 Feb 2009
The French Advertiser Association (UDA) and the French Food Industry Association (ANIA) plan to sign an "obesity charter" together with the French health minister, Roselyne Bachelot, the French minister for culture, Christine Albanel, and the President of the French Broadcasting Council (CSA).
The charter, also to be co-signed by 10 heads of French TV stations, makes various commitments designed to promote healthy diets and physical activity in editorial and advertising broadcast on French television.
The charter includes:
- Commitment to ensure that the content of advertising messages help support healthy lifestyles. The food advertising codes are to be reviewed by the French Self-Regulatory Organisation (ARPP)
- financing by advertisers of "short programmes" to promote healthy lifestyles
- quotas for television stations for programming dedicated to healthy nutrition (500 hours/year),
- preferential tarrifs for the National Institute of Prevention and Education for Health (INPES)
This Charter will be signed against a backdrop of parallel efforts to tax and restrict food advertising on television.
On 4 February a number of amendments were tabled in the French Parliament on the new 'Hospital Reform Bill' including banning TV or radio advertising for foods containing added sugar, fat or sweeteners, during programmes qualified by the Broadcasting Council as having an audience mostly composed of children and youth.
This advertising will also be banned during the 15 minutes preceding and following these programmes for commercials broadcast from 1 January 2010 onwards.
The 1.5 per cent tax on processed foods and sugary drinks advertising, will be replaced by a rate of 3 per cent under the Public Health Code.
The bill will be debated in plenary within the National Assembly within the week, before being sent to the senate for approval.
If no agreement is reached, a special commission formed by seven deputies and seven senators will be called together to decide on the bill and its amendments.
