The Swiss company has unveiled its refreshed Policy on Marketing Communication to Children, banning the direct advertising of products like biscuits, confectionery, ice cream and sugary drinks – irrespective of whether they meet the company’s nutrition criteria – to children under the age of 16.
The new version broadens the company’s 2017 Policy, which aims to ensure all kids to have a healthy start in life and prohibits product marketing communications targeting children between the ages of 0 and 6.
Under the Policy, the company doesn’t market biscuits, sugar, chocolate confectionery, water-based beverages with added sugars and ice creams to children under 13. It also doesn’t advertise these products in primary and secondary schools.
As per previous injunctions, the new standard – which comes into effect on 1 July 2023 in all markets in which the company operates – will be applied to TV and online platforms, including social media and gaming ones with greater than 25% of their audience under 16 years old.
Additionally, Nestlé promises not to solicit or collect personal data of minors, and will only partner with social media influencers over the age of 18.
Finally, it is said it will be striving to improve child nutrition by ‘coupling existing nutrition services, educational tools and recipes. These safeguards will help children and young adolescents build a solid foundation for a healthy lifestyle’.
No excuse
Added Marie Chantal Messier, head of Food and Industry Affairs at Nestlé, “We do not engage in direct marketing communication to children zero to six years of age.
