Marketing to Children Commitment

OUR COMPANY

Arnott’s is one of the largest food manufacturers across Australia and New Zealand, employing around 2,400 staff. The company manufactures a range of baked snacks, simple meals and healthy beverages, including household names such as: Tim Tam, Tiny Teddy and Shapes.

 

OUR COMMITMENT

We have always been committed to the health and wellbeing of our consumers. This commitment extends to responsibly marketing our products to children under 12 years of age, who may find the concept of a ”balanced diet‟ more difficult to understand than adults. We welcomed the development of the Australian Food and Grocery Council’s (AFGC) Responsible Children’s Marketing Initiative and have pledged its commitment to marketing communications to children under 12 years of age only when it will further the goal of promoting healthy dietary choices and healthy lifestyles in accordance with the core principles set out below.

 

CORE PRINCIPLES 

We will meet each of the core principles outlined in the Responsible Children’s Marketing Initiative by:

 

Advertising Messaging

We will not advertise food and beverage products to children under 12 years in media unless:

  1. Those products represent healthy dietary choices, consistent with established scientific or Australian government standards; and

  2. The advertising and/or marketing communication activities reference, or are in the context of, a healthy lifestyle, designed to appeal to the intended audience through messaging that encourages:

  • Good dietary habits, consistent with established scientific or government criteria

  • Physical activity

 

Use of popular personalities and characters

We will not use popular personalities, program characters or licensed characters in advertising primarily directed to children under 12 years unless such advertising complies with the messaging options set out above. This is in addition to requirements under the Children’s Television Standards 2009 covering C and P periods (CTS Section 35).

 

Product placement

We will not pay for or actively seek to place their food or beverage products in the program/editorial content of any medium primarily directed to children under 12 years, for the purpose of promoting the sale of those products, unless those products are consistent with healthy dietary choices as set out above.

 

Use of products in interactive games

We will commit, that in any interactive game primarily directed to children under 12 years where its food or beverage products are incorporated, the interactive game must incorporate or be consistent with healthy dietary choices and healthy lifestyle messaging as set out above.

 

Advertising in schools

We won’t have any product-related advertising in primary schools, except where specifically requested by, or agreed with, the school administration for educational or informational purposes, or where the it’s related to healthy lifestyle activities, under the supervision of the school administration or appropriate adults.

 

Use of premium offers

We will commit to not advertising premium offers on products directed primarily to children under 12 years unless those products are consistent with healthy dietary choices. In addition, the reference to the premium must be merely incidental to the product being advertised in accordance with the AANA codes and the Children’s Television Standards 2009 (CTS Section 33).

 

SCIENTIFIC OR GOVERNMENT STANDARDS

We produce a large range of sweet biscuits and savoury crackers, soups and juices which have varying nutrition profiles based on formulation, format and size. In deciding which of our products may be considered acceptable for advertising to children under 12 years, we have used the New South Wales Healthy School Canteen Strategy Food and Drink Benchmark nutrient criteria. Further information on this standard is available from NSW Health  http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/heal/Pages/healthy-school-canteens.aspx. 

 

MEDIA

Our support of this initiative applies to television, radio, print, cinema and third-party websites, where the audience is predominantly children, or the theme, visuals, and language used are directed primarily to children.

 

COMPLIANCE AND COMPLAINTS

We agree to abide by any decision or ruling made by the appointed arbiter in relation to the execution of this plan.

 

REPORTING 

We provide a report of our marketing activity within this plan on an annual basis – due by the end of February each year.