Marketing to minors of food and drink products
The PAOS CODE for co-regulation of the advertising of food and drink products to minors, obesity prevention and health (June 2005). Modified in 2012 and 2013.
The PAOS CODE, since 2005 and with an expansion in 2012, has been implemented as a co-regulation code enabling the reduction of sales pressure on minors as a group and an improvement to the quality and content of all types of food and drink advertisements that target minors. The PAOS Code established a set of ethical rules to assist adhering companies in developing, creating and disseminating advertising messages for food and drink products that target minors, in order to prevent excessive advertising pressure on them.
The 2005 PAOS Code was reinforced in 2009 through a collaboration agreement with television operators. In the agreement, television networks made the commitment to demand that advertisements for food and drink products aimed at children below the age of 12 or aired outside of watershed hours comply with the standards established in the PAOS Code. This ensured that television advertising targeting minors that is aired in Spain would respect the rights of children.
On 26 December 2012, the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality and the President of AECOSAN signed the new 2012 PAOS Code with the Spanish Federation of Food and Drink Industries (FIAB), the Association for the Self-Regulation of Advertising (AUTOCONTROL), the distribution sector (ANGED, ASEDAS and ACES), and the hotel and catering sectors (FEHR and FEHRCAREM) as strategic actors in the food chain, within the framework of the NAOS strategy. This is a step forwards in compliance with the Law on Food Safety and Nutrition passed by the Spanish parliament in 2011, which in articles 45 and 46 establishes the obligation to promote co-regulation agreements and codes of conduct with economic operators to regulate food and drink advertising aimed at children and young people under the age of 15, in order to prevent obesity and encourage healthy habits.
The new 2012 PAOS Code is based on the agreement for the self-regulation of the marketing of food and drinks products to minors, signed in 2005 by the Ministry of Health, AESAN (now AECOSAN), FIAB and AUTOCONTROL. This agreement was the first PAOS Code and established the rules governing the development, creation and dissemination of advertising messages targeting children below the age of 12.
The new 2012 PAOS Code includes significant improvements: in addition to its applicability to the advertising of food and drink products to children below the age of 12, its area of applicability extends to cover the online advertising of food and drink products at young people aged under 15. This brings the regulations up to date, as the Internet is a medium which has seen a significant increase in advertising that targets minors.
The implementation of the PAOS CODE over the past ten years has caused an objective improvement in the quality and pressure of advertisements for food and drinks that target minors.
PAOS Code monitoring and control
Monitoring of online food and drinks product advertising targeting minors
PAOS code monitoring and assessment indicators
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