Swiss Pledge: Industry groups restrict advertising for children

The signatory companies do not want to place any advertising in media whose target groups are predominantly children under the age of twelve. This means that product advertising will not be used if the proportion of the target audience of children under the age of twelve is "50 percent or more". The restriction does not apply to "products that meet specific nutritional criteria based on recognized scientific nutritional recommendations and national and international nutritional guidelines", as stated in the declaration.

The groups have an independent market research company certify compliance with the campaign promise. For the time being, the review is limited to TV advertising. However, this accounts for over three quarters of the total expenditure of the participating companies and almost a third of all gross TV advertising expenditure in the food and beverage industry. In 2010, the six groups spent around CHF 100 million on TV advertising. The expenditure of the entire industry amounted to 331 million francs. The monitoring was carried out by the market research institute Media Focus, which recorded a figure of 99.6% of correctly placed TV advertising for 2010. The aim is to extend the monitoring beyond TV advertising in the future, according to the report.

The content of the voluntary commitment is based on comparable programs in the EU and 13 other countries worldwide. The voluntary initiative is open to other market participants who undertake to comply with the minimum criteria. The companies have received positive feedback from the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) and the Swiss Commission for Fair Trading: "We welcome any credible effort by an industry to self-regulate and monitor, which promotes the goals of the Commission, in particular transparency towards consumers and the public," Marc Schwenninger, Legal Secretary of the SLK, was quoted as saying in a press release.