Greater controls on marketing & children backed by Labour and Conservatives

Both Labour and Conservative have backed plans for a government sponsored website where parents can register complaints over marketing aimed at children.

Controversy over commercial marketing at the under-age appeared frequently in UK marketing news over the past year and both blue and red have seized upon it as an election issue. This Monday, the Labour party’s manifesto detailed plans to develop an online site remarkably similar to that proposed by Tory leader David Cameron in February.

Labour has asked the consumer watchdog, Consumer Focus, to develop a site where parents can register concerns as part of the party’s pledge “to support parents who challenge aggressive or sexualised commercial marketing.”

This has prompted the Tories to accuse Labour of copying their idea. In February, David Cameron proposed the website idea, suggesting that any company whose marketing contained “in-appropriate sexualisation” of children could be prevented from bidding on COI contracts for three years.

As the COI is currently the largest single advertiser in the UK, this could be a substantial deterrent, though the Conservative party has pledged to make significant cuts to the COI’s annual spend.

Several incidents over the past few months have made concerns over advertising aimed at the young a prevalent topic. Mr Cameron’s proposals were made in advance of a Home Office report that claimed children were being increasingly exposed to sexual imagery in all forms of media.

The appropriateness of marketing products to children beyond the issue of sexualisation has also been of concern. Most recently, a campaign for Kellogg’s Coco-Pops has been criticised for promoting unhealthy eating to the young by the Children’s Food campaign group. Last year, OFCOM ruled that Domino’s pizza could no longer sponsor the Simpson’s because it promoted products high in fat, salt and sugar on a show of “particular appeal” to under 16′s.

Online marketing techniques have also come under scrutiny; further regulation of social media marketing activity forms a significant part of the Conservative manifesto. Peer-to-peer marketing and brand presence on social networking will be banned where it concerns children.

Head teachers and school governors will also be given the power to ban advertising and vending machines in schools.

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