Grupo Bimbo, Frito Lay (Sabritas from PepsiCo), Mondelez, Gamesa, Bonafont and the National Chamber of the Radio and Television Industry (CIRT) on the one hand, and, on the other, Nestlé and the Mexican Council of the Food Products Industry. Consumo (ConMéxico) have protected themselves against the prohibition that prevents them from continuing to use highly efficient strategies to induce Mexican children to consume unhealthy products, such as children’s characters, animations, cartoons, etc. These strategies have been denounced by the United Nations Children’s Fund for violating the rights of children and by the World Health Organization for violating their right to health.
The injunctions have been filed against the reforms to the Regulations of the General Health Law that prohibit the use of these characters in advertising and against the front labeling standard that prohibits their use on packaging.
It has been shown, through many different scientific studies, that the use of characters in packaging and advertising occurs, mainly, to encourage girls and boys to consume unhealthy foods and drinks that have a high responsibility for being overweight and underweight. obesity have skyrocketed in the child population and that these generations are having a lower life expectancy than their parents. The OECD speaks of a 4-year reduction in the life expectancy of Mexicans if these trends of overweight and obesity continue, and prospective health studies indicate that, if the trends are not changed, one in two girls and boys in our country You will develop diabetes throughout your life.
Based on human rights, on the rights of children, some nations have prohibited all types of advertising aimed at children considering the susceptibility of this sector of the population, due to their cognitive immaturity, to being manipulated by marketing strategies. In particular, several more nations have established a ban on food and beverage advertising aimed at children, responding to calls from the World Health Organization since 2004, recognizing that it is a powerful factor in the deterioration of their eating habits and the development of chronic non-communicable diseases.
In 2004, the WHO, in the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health, made it very clear when it said that this advertising “takes advantage of the credulity and inexperience of children.” UNICEF recognizes, like the WHO, that this advertising takes advantage of the condition of vulnerability of children.
To give an idea of the investment of corporations in the development of strategies to encourage girls and boys to consume their products, we cite a systematic review that found 117 different techniques to do so, noting that the “use of characters, children and actors” was the most popular marketing technique for marketing products to children. And if companies resort to the use of characters, it is because of their great effectiveness.
From the age of three, girls and boys already show preferences for products that have characters and other attractive elements instead of products that do not have these elements. Cartoons on packaging is one of the most frequent marketing techniques to attract the attention of boys and girls. The animations range from the use of characters from television shows, movie characters, to characters created by the manufacturers themselves.
Many different controlled studies with girls and boys have offered the same product in packages that include characters and in others that do not have them, asking them to try them and indicate which product they like best, the one that tastes the best. In all the studies carried out with various products such as cookies, chips, hamburgers, etc., the majority of girls and boys declared that those products that had characters on their packaging tasted better, despite the fact that they were the same product. only with different packaging.
The evaluations that have been carried out in various countries on products that have characters on their packaging or that are advertised with characters conclude that most of these products are not recommended for consumption by girls and boys, that is, they are not healthy products.
The protections of the industry, from Bimbo, Nestlé, Mondelez, Frito Lay (Sabritas-PepsiCo), Bonafont, Gamesa and the Chamber of the Radio and Television Industry (CIRT) and the Mexican Council of the Consumer Products Industry ( ConMéxico), the latter representing the very powerful radio and television networks in the country and the largest junk food corporations, violating the best interests of children, violating their own rights, seek to maintain their predatory advertising on a deeply vulnerable population that For the first time, in a serious way, the State seeks to protect through frontal labeling and reforms to the advertising regulations.
Evidence of child abuse through advertising led the large global ultra-processed food and beverage corporations in the United States, Canada, and Mexico in 2008 to make public their “commitment” to protect children from product advertising. unhealthy through the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. This “commitment” of the corporations, has been one more of the makeup to appear a certain level of ethics, only to appear. More than 15 years ago, some of the same companies that present the protections today committed themselves to only advertise healthy options for children. Obviously it was a makeup, they clarified that the criteria were set by each company since, they argued, their products were different. In this way, to give just one example: Kellogg’s established such lax criteria that its Zucaritas with 40% sugar could be advertised for children with the Toño Tiger, who had already become the most recognized character for girls and boys.
Fortunately, three of the draft rulings on protection against labeling, which are already before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, defend labeling. There are a couple more that include the issue of characters who have not yet been sentenced, they are protections from Herdez and ConMéxico. Among the injunctions filed in the first instance against the advertising regulations for prohibiting the use of characters and other strategies for children, that of Frito Lay, which is PepsiCo’s Sabritas, received a ruling in favor with the judge’s profound ignorance of all the evidence. that exists on the impact of advertising on eating habits.
It is important that the Judiciary review the scientific evidence in this regard and place the best interests of children and the right to health above the commercial rights of brands, and, in particular, prohibit the abuse of children, the use of their vulnerability, as the WHO says, of their credulity and inexperience.
Alejandro Calvillo
Sociologist with studies in philosophy (University of Barcelona) and environment and sustainable development (El Colegio de México). Director of The Power of the Consumer. He was part of the founding group of Greenpeace Mexico where he worked for a total of 12 years, five as executive director, working on issues of air pollution and climate change. He is a member of The Lancet’s Commission on Obesity. He is on the editorial board of World Obesity, an organ of the World Public Health Nutrition Association. Recognized by the international organization Ashoka as a social entrepreneur. He has been invited to collaborate with the Pan American Health Organization within the group of experts for the regulation of food and beverage advertising aimed at children. He has participated as a speaker in conferences organized by the ministries of health of Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Ecuador, Chile, as well as by the Congress of Peru. the International EAT forum, the Obesity Society, among others.
