What are Marketing Restrictions?
Food and beverage marketing is everywhere—most of it promotes unhealthy products and much targets children through tactics like cartoons and celebrity endorsements. Some marketing is apparent, like product packaging or official branded TV ads, while other forms are hidden, like sponsorships of events and video games.
Exposure to this marketing shapes food choices and perceptions of what’s healthy, contributing to poorer diets and higher risk of diet-related chronic diseases. This is especially true for children who may not realize they are being advertised to or understand the consequences of unhealthy eating.
Comprehensively restricting unhealthy food and beverage advertising and sponsorships across channels and platforms is a powerful tool to protect consumers from persuasive and deceitful tactics, helping people eat better, feel better and reduce their disease risk.
Best Practice Recommendations
Coming soon!
Understand the Evidence
Learn how restricting unhealthy food and beverage marketing can improve public health. Click below to view the evidence page for more data.
After implementation of phase 1 of Chile’s Food Labeling and Advertising Law, 42% fewer cereal boxes used child-directed marketing strategies.
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After implementation of phase 2 of Chile’s Food Labeling and Advertising Law, children’s exposure to ads for food high in nutrients of concern (e.g., salt, sugar, and saturated fat) dropped 73%.
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After South Korea introduced marketing regulations, the number of television ads for unhealthy food and beverages during restricted hours dropped 81%.
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Restrictions on television advertising of unhealthy food and beverages to children in Australia were projected to save U.S. $590 million (AUD $783.8M) in health care costs.
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Adopt this Solution
- 60 countries restrict children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing
- 20 countries have mandatory policies
- 18 countries have mandatory policies limited to schools
- Few have comprehensive policies limiting both exposure and persuasive power across multiple settings (e.g., Chile, Mexico, Portugal)
Ready to join them by creating or strengthening an existing policy? Read the guide to restricting marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages, with links to practical tools and resources.
Coming soon: How can marketing restrictions on unhealthy food be adopted?Learn from Case Studies
Learn from the experiences of countries that have successfully implemented policies to protect people from unhealthy food and beverage marketing.
Coming soon: What can be learned from others about marketing restrictions on unhealthy food?Other Solutions
Learn more about other solutions for healthier food environments and how they can be combined into comprehensive policies.
