direct to consumer advertising

UK doctors ask for taxing fizzy drinks and ban junk food ads to act against obesity epidemic

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, representing nearly every doctor in the United Kingdom, calls on unhealthy foods to be addressed with anti-tobacco-like campaigns as current measures are clearly failing. The UK is the "fat man" of Europe. This phrase, which reflects the shocking reality that one quarter of UK inhabitants are obese and up to one third are overweight, is the starting point of Measuring Up: the medical profession’s prescription for the nation’s obesity (...)

[Update] Audiovisual Media Service Directive Implementation report adopted by the European Parliament

[The Brussels Business] Interactive website and film

Arte TV, a Franco-German TV network, has just launched an online interactive app to foster dialogue between Brussels-based representatives in the EU Parliament and citizens, so both get to debate EU related issues online. The Brussels Business Online - Have your say The concept is simple: For eight weeks, the Arte TV team will be based inside the EU Parliament in Brussels in order to offer a “window of dialogue and action” on issues debated among EU lawmakers. This (...)

Sugar users ‘disappointed’ by agriculture committee vote to keep sugar quotas

Sugar users were dealt a blow on sugar quota reform, after the European agriculture committee voted to extend the current system to 2020, rejecting a proposal to end quotas by 2015. Further detaild are available in the Food navigator website EPHA related articles EU and Member States’ strategies on nutrition, overweight and obesity WHO Global Recommendations on Physical Activity for Health National Obesity Forum Annual Conference "Obesity and the Economics of Prevention: (...)

[Press Release] The revised Tobacco Directive - the beginning of the end of tobacco industry led policy-making?

19 December, Brussels – EPHA welcomes today’s release of the revised Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) by Health Commissioner Borg. With stronger measures on e-cigarettes, tobacco flavouring and the shape of cigarettes and packs, this proposal is good news for the further protection of people’s health across Europe. Among other proposals, the Directive recommends pictorial health warnings that cover 75% of cigarette packs. Whilst it is to be applauded as a great move to (...)

Nutri-Medias: A new tool empowering young people when facing food industry advertisement

COFACE, the Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union, recently launched a new education tool in the arena of food and nutrition aimed at emphasising the link between food marketing and advertising. Due to the fact that the majority of studies evaluating the links between food marketing/advertising and young peoples’ behaviours are sponsored, in one way or another, very few of these studies are trustworthy. Yet, these papers do emphasise the impact that advertising (...)

The European Economic and Social Committee publishes its opinion on advertising and children

In September 2012, the European Economic and Social Committee published its opinion on "A framework for advertising aimed at young people and children". Among its main messages, the Report regrets that the current advertising framework is not protective enough and urges the European Commission to consider the adoption of more restrictive measures. Concerned by the rising presence of online media, especially social media and their sometimes intrusive not to say inappropriate actions, the (...)

The European Commission publishes two important reports on alcohol marketing and young people

In November 2012, the European Commission published two important reports following presentation of the preliminary findings during the last meeting of the European Alcohol and Health Forum. The documents bring fresh evidence on young people’s exposure to alcohol marketing, a domain that is currently self-regulated by the alcohol industry themselves. According to the 2010 Eurobarometer study conducted by the European Commission, 77% of respondents, from across the 27 Member States, (...)

Traffic lights labelling scheme on UK food and drinks products

*Update 25 October 2012* Tesco, the UK’s largest retailer, will soon be using a hybrid consumer information system combining the already existing Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) with traffic lights. The move has been widely welcomed by Europe’s public health community - a largely strong advocate of the colour-coded scheme. ***Update October 2012*** Following on from a decision from the UK government, from mid 2013, the national leading food producers and retailers will use an (...)

EPHA’s opinion on self-regulation

The European Commission (DG Connect) organised a public consultation on a "Code for Effective Open Voluntarism: Good design principles for self- and co-regulation and other multi-stakeholder actions." EPHA responded to the Consultation to highlight the evidence base showing that self-regulation does not work to achieve health policy objectives and to highlight governance issues in relation to voluntary regulation. EPHA also participated in a public meeting to discuss the draft code that (...)