DIGC102
Industry
Analysis
Report


By
Sam
Hardaker


Question:
What
are
Australia’s
rules
and
regulations
for
food

advertising
towards
children?


In
recent
times
advertising
that
is
targeted
towards
children
has

become
closely
scrutinised.

With
the
introduction
of
new
codes
of

conduct,
rules
and
regulations
within
the
advertising
industry

products
targeted
towards
child
have
become
one
of
the
most
heavily

regulated.

With
advertising
towards
children
in
mind,
I
will
be
focusing
mainly

on
food
advertising,
the
codes
that
are
in
place
to
regulate
this

practice,
the
advertising
agencies
and
their
clients,
as
well
as
an

industry
regulator.

The
three
companies/organisations
that
will
be
focused
within
this

report
are
two
advertising
agencies,
the
DDB
Group,
JWT
Australia

and
an
industry
regulator
the
Advertising
Federation
of
Australia.



As
both
the
DDB
Group
and
JWT
Australia
are
advertising
agencies

the
way
they
operate
a
fairly
similar
with
one
another.

The
basic
structure
of
an
agency
is
split
into
four
main
departments;

account
service,
creative
services,
media
planning
and
buying,

account
planning
and
research.

The
flow
of
how
an
ad
agency
operates
isn’t
a
linear
process,
the

processes
involved
requires
a
collaborative
effort
among
the
four

main
departments
to
achieve
the
best
possible
result
(The
Marketing

Association
of
Australia
and
New
Zealand
n.d.).

As
apposed
to
a
Government
regulator
such
as
the
Australian

Competition
&
Consumer
Commission
(ACCC)
the
Advertising

Federation
of
Australia
(AFA)
is
an
industry
self‐regulator.


Self‐regulators
are
not
so
much
a
direct
product
of
laws
but
more
of
a

tool
to
develop
and
possibly
stall
any
laws
that
Government
agencies

may
enforce.

Self‐regulating
is
seen
as
an
advantageous
process
as
it
promotes

more
realistic
operational
guidelines
and
is
usually
less
expensive.

(Elliott
2008
pp
66)

This
is
the
case
with
AFA
(2009)
as
they
state
on
their
website
“We

help
our
members
­
large
and
small,
multinational
and
locally
owned
–

to
grow
their
businesses
by
the
provision
of
professional
development

services,
advocacy
and
support
for
an
appropriate
regulatory

environment.”




The
DDB
Groups
(2009)
management
structure
consists
of
the

Chairman
and
CEO
for
DDB
Australia
and
New
Zealand
Marty

O’Halloran,
Matt
Eastwood
the
Vice
Chairman
&
National
Creative

Director,
Chris
Brown
the
Sydney
Groups
Managing
Director,
Leif

Stromnes
the
Managing
Director
of
Strategy
and
Innovation,
and

Michelle
Filo
the
Human
Resources
Director.


JWT
Australia’s
(2009)
Chief
Executive
Officer
for
the
Australian
and

New
Zealand
is
Noel
Magnus.

As
JWT
are
based
in
Auckland,
New
Zealand,
Melbourne
and
the
head

office
in
Sydney
there
are
branch
managing
directors.
Focusing
more

on
the
head
branch
in
Sydney,
it
consists
of
an
Executive
Creative

Director,
Angus
Hennah,
Penny
Sarfati
the
General
Manager,
and

Andrew
Mccowan
the
Planning
Director.


Like
DDB
and
JWT,
AFA
is
structured
similar.

According
to
AFA’s

(2009)
site
the
organisation
operates
in
three
strategic
areas
–

service
to
their
members,
as
an
industry
advocate
and
underpinning

commercial
activities.

AFA’s
(2009)
staff
structure
is
as
follows,
the
Executive
Director
is

Mark
Champion,
Gawen
Rudder
is
the
Manager
of
Business
Services

&
Advice,
Jo
Libline
is
the
Events
&
Sponsorship
Manager,
Emma

Graham
is
the
Member
Services
Coordinator
and
Genevieve
Murphy

is
the
Accreditation
Manager
and
APG.

Unlike
DDB
and
JWT,
AFA
also
has
a
National
Board
that
represents

their
members.
The
board
consists
of
a
Chair
who
represents
the
AFA

in
the
media
and
in
representations
to
Government
and
industry
and

three
other
National
Directors
and
state
representatives,
consisting

of
three
members
from
NSW,
two
from
Victoria,
and
one
from

Queensland
and
South
Australia.
The
job
of
the
National
Board
is
to

set
strategic
direction
of
AFA.



The
main
purpose
of
advertising
is
to
make
a
product
desirable

within
a
targeted
market.
For
a
company
to
make
their
product
or

service
desirable
they
will
normally
employ
an
advertising
agency
to

create
a
marketing
campaign.

The
DDB
group
(2009)
has
a
number
of
clients
that
have
employed

them
to
create
marketing
campaigns
for
their
products.
They
include;

Wrigley’s
Extra,
Lipton,
Arnott’s,
Tourism
Australia
and
the
main

reason
for
why
I
have
chosen
DDB
for
this
report
McDonald’s.


With
McDonald’s
being
one
of
the
world’s
most
recognisable
brands

having
a
history
of
employing
questionable
marketing
techniques

towards
children
such
as
pester
power.

JWT’s
(2009)
clients
include
Shell,
Kraft,
Nestle,
AMP,
Energizer,

Nokia
and
Kellogg’s.


Focusing
more
on
Kellogg’s
who
produce
breakfast
cereals
Coco
Pops

and
Fruit
Loops
which
employ
cartoon
characters
such
as
the

Monkey
for
Coco
Pops
and
the
Toucan
bird
for
Fruit
Loops.

AFA
(2009)
on
the
other
hand
are
an
organisation
that
uses

sponsorship
from
advertising
agencies
including
DDB
and
JWT
to

represent
and
lobby
to
Governments
and
politicians.


The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) (2009) have

introduced two codes to protect the best interests of both the advertiser
and the customer specifically children, the AANA Code for Advertising
& Marketing Communication to Children along with the AANA Food &
Beverages Advertising & Marketing Communications Code.
The objective of these codes is to ensure that advertisers and marketers
develop and maintain a high sense of social responsibility in advertising
and marketing food and beverage products to children within Australia.
Key points to take from the Code for Advertising & Marketing
Communication to Children would have to be:
a)
Advertising
or
Marketing
Communications
to
Children
for

food
or
beverages
must
neither
encourage
nor
promote
an

inactive
lifestyle
or
unhealthy
eating
or
drinking
habits.

b)
Advertising
or
Marketing
Communications
to
Children
must

comply
with
the
AANA
Food
&
Beverages
Advertising
&

Marketing
Communications
Code.

The
Food
&
Beverages
Advertising
&
Marketing
Communications

Code
also
states
that:

3.3
Advertising
or
Marketing
Communications
to
Children
shall

not
state
nor
imply
that
possession
or
use
of
a
particular

Children’s
Food
or
Beverage
Product
will
afford
physical,
social

or
psychological
advantage
over
other
Children,
or
that
non‐
possession
of
the
Children’s
Food
or
Beverage
Product
would

have
the
opposite
effect.

In
contrast
to
the
Codes
introduced
by
AANA,
The
Australian’s

Siobhain
Ryan
(2009)
reported
a
major
task
force
established
by
the

Rudd
Government
to
combat
the
growing
obesity
epidemic
of
the

countries
children
called
for
the
phase‐out
of
television
advertising
of

junk
food
towards
children.
All
the
while
a
Government
agency
the

Australian
Communications
and
Media
Authority
ruled
there
wasn’t
a

case
to
answer
citing
there
was
insufficient
evidence
to
support
a

ban,
contradicting
the
Government
Task
Forces
findings.





References:



Advertising
Federation
of
Australia
2009,
accessed
08/09/2009,

http://www.afa.org.au/

Australian
Association
of
National
Advertisers,
AANA
Code
for

Advertising
&
Marketing
Communications
to
Children,
accessed

12/08/2009,
http://www.aana.com.au/childrens_code.html

Australian
Association
of
National
Advertisers,
AANA
Food
&

Beverages
Advertising
&
Marketing
Communications
Code,
accessed

12/08/2009,
http://www.aana.com.au/food_beverages_code.html

The
DDB
Group
2009,
accessed
12/08/2009,

http://www.ddb.com.au/

Elliott,
G
2008,
Marketing
–
Core
Concepts
&
Applications,
2nd
Asia‐
Pacific
edn,
John
Wiley
&
Sons
Australia
Ltd,
Milton,
Queensland.

JWT
Australia
2009,
accessed
08/09/2009,
http://www.jwt.com.au/

The
Marketing
Association
of
Australia
and
New
Zealand
n.d.,
How

Advertising
Agencies
Operate?
accessed
23/09/2009,

http://www.marketing.org.au/?i=EYK/Z0vgN6Y=&t=jZS6ngCVPug

Ryan,
S
2009,
‘Division
over
junk
food
ads
for
kids’,
The
Australian,
02

September,
accessed
17/09/2009,

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26015368‐
23289,00.html