Advertising Standards Bureau Review of Operations 2014 | Page 51

Advertising to Children
AANA Code for Advertising
and Marketing Communications
to Children
The provisions of the Children’s Code and Part
3 of the Food Code apply only to advertising
which is directed primarily to children (taking
into account the theme, visuals, and language used
in the advertisement) and which is for products
that are targeted towards or of principal appeal
to children. The Children’s Code applies to all
products that are targeted towards or of principal
appeal to children – not just food.
In 2014 there were seven advertisements that
specifically raised issues under the Advertising to
Children Code. Of these, five were advertisements
for food products. One complaint was upheld
under the Children’s Code in 2014.

Sexualisation of children
There were no advertisements directed primarily
to children which raised issues regarding
sexualisation of children in 2014.

Food advertising
All five food cases considered under the Children’s
Code were also considered under the Food Code.
Two of these advertisements were found not to be
directed primarily at children (Wendy’s - 0257/14
and Peters - 0464/14) and therefore were not
considered under the Children’s Code.
Consistent with previous decisions the Board
found that advertising of a treat food was not
in itself encouraging or promoting an inactive
lifestyle or unhealthy eating or drinking habits
and therefore no breaches of this code were found
(Peters - 0463/14 and 0465/14 and Fyna Foods
- 0101/14).

without the toy would be ‘left behind’, however
the advertisement itself was found to be targeted
at adults and therefore the provisions of the
Children’s Code did not apply (ZURU Toys 0311/14).
One advertisement (Mattel - 0522/14) was
considered under the parental authority section of
the Children’s Code, which urged children to add
the toy to their letter to Santa:
“The Board considered that the call to action by
the voiceover at the end of the advertisement
was a call to children to urge their parents to
either help them to access the website in order
to direct a letter to Santa requesting this toy or
from a child’s perspective is an appeal to children
to urge Santa to provide a present. The Board
noted the terms of the Code, “parent, carer or
other person” and considering that the Code must
be considered from the perspective of a child, the
Board considered that this amounts to an appeal
to children to urge someone to obtain the toy
for them.
The Board considered the term “buy” a product
and considered that in the context of a reference
to Santa “buy” should be interpreted broadly and
would include the suggestion to ask Santa to
provide the toy.
The Board considered that the suggestion to “add
the toy to your letter to santa.com” was an appeal
to children to urge someone to obtain the product
for them and this was urging parents to purchase
this toy and that in doing so did breach section
2.7(b) of the Children’s Code.”

Parental authority
In 2014 the Board considered one complaint
for a toy where it was implied that children

Review of Operations 2014

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