Food and Beverage Code

Across Australia, reputable advertising and marketing companies are operating according to the Food and Beverage Code when advertising and marketing foods and beverages.

This Code has been adopted by the AANA (Australian Association of National Advertisers) and it’s members as part of advertising and marketing self-regulation. The object of this Code is to ensure that advertisers and marketers develop and maintain a high sense of social responsibility in advertising and marketing food and beverage products in Australia.

The Code can be found at http://www.aana.com.au/documents/CodeFoodBeverage.pdf

The Code has recently been tested during an advertising complaint against Kellogs. The Advertising Standards Board reviewed submissions from both the company and the complainants and used the Code to determine the result, and it was in favour of Kellogs.

“A complaint about claims and nutritional benefits of a breakfast cereal has resulted in a determination in favour of the cereal company based on the Board’s understanding of how the target audience would interpret the advertisement,” Advertising Standards Bureau, Chief Executive Officer, Ms Fiona Jolly said.

“The complainant argued that the product (Nutrigrain) contains high levels of sugar and salt and is not a healthy product overall and that the advertiser makes selective claims about certain nutrients to create a misleading impression that the product is healthy. This raised a number of interesting issues for the Board,” Ms Jolly advised. “In determining whether an advertisement is truthful the Board’s task is to reflect the community’s attitude – to assess whether the advertisements meet current community expectations for truthfulness given the message the advertisements convey to ordinary consumers.”

“In the Board’s view the community does not expect that an advertisement for a food product will list all, most or even the most significant elements of the food, but it does expect that the information that is presented is correct,” Ms Jolly said.

“The Board’s view is that it is still a community expectation that advertisements are designed to raise consumer interest in a product but are not expected to be the source of all information on which a consumer will base their purchasing decisions. The complete information about the product will be found in store or on the label and packaging material,” Ms Jolly concluded.Information about the advertisement and marketing complaints process for the Advertising Standards Board and a full list of the advertisements considered are on the ASB website: www.adstandards.com.au under ‘Case Reports’.