Cartoon characters and food: just for fun?

Levels of childhood obesity have skyrocketed in recent decades across Europe with one in three children now currently overweight or obese.

As the World Health Organisation has stated, there is now “unequivocal evidence” that the marketing to children of foods which are high in fat, salt or sugar is strongly linked to childhood obesity. Cartoon characters such as brand mascots and licensed media characters are key marketing tools used by food companies to attract children to their
products which are often high in fat, salt and sugar. Urgent action is therefore required to protect consumers, in particular, children who are amongst the most vulnerable

BEUC's recommendations include: 

• For food and retail companies to end their use of brand mascots and licensed media characters in advertising and marketing (including packaging) of foods high in fat, salt and sugar

• For entertainment companies to adopt a strict policy of only licensing their characters to foods which are not high in fat, salt and sugar.

• European governments should recognise the pervasive and persuasive influence of cartoon characters used to attract children to foods which are high in fat, salt and sugar. In the absence of adequate action from industry, they should therefore consider introducing regulatory measures to properly tackle this issue.

• Restrictions on advertising such foods should apply to children up to the age of 16 as is already the case in some European countries. Governments should take this into account when developing advertising codes of conduct and industry voluntary pledges should be immediately improved in this regard.