Mars UK has moved to defend its marketing strategy in the country after coming under fire for targeting children with online campaigns.
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A report in the UK newspaper The Guardian said yesterday (31 July) that Mars is among a number of food companies using social networking sites to market their products.
The report claimed that advertising to children on the Internet is a “largely unregulated area” and that any content classed as “editorial” is exempt from UK advertising regulations.
Mars said today that it does run Internet marketing campaigns for its Skittles brand on the Bebo networking site but that the programme meets its “appropriate” internal standards for marketing to children.
A Mars spokesperson told just-food that the company is the “first global food producer” to phase out the advertising and marketing of products to children under the age of 12, including online.
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By GlobalData“Mars is the first global food producer to make this commitment at a global level to stop marketing its core products to children under 12-years-old,” the spokesperson said.
“This decision was taken on the basis of the overwhelming academic consensus that, by the age of 12 years, children understand both the difference between advertising and content, as well as advertising’s persuasive intent, and have developed cognitive skills to process advertising. We therefore believe that this is the appropriate age we should use and plan to implement this new policy on a global basis accordingly.”
The spokesperson added: “The Bebo website is for teenagers and anyone joining the site must be 13 years or older. After joining the site, anyone wishing to take part in the Skittles promotion must also declare themselves as 13 years or older.”
