Masterfoods to Stop Advertising to Under 12s

Masterfoods, the maker of Mars and Snickers candy bars as well as M&Ms, has decided that it’s going to stop advertising to the under 12 audience in the UK by the end of the year. The company already has a policy of not advertising to the under 6 crowd, so this is merely an extension of this. Of course, the TV watchdog Ofcom is kicking up a fuss about such advertising, so Masterfoods is doing what any smart business does, it makes a PR virtue out of a regulatory necessity.

The Mars bar (especially the UK, pre-2002 version) holds a special place in the British chocolate-lovers heart. After all, the Undertones released a song called “Mars Bars” without getting an upfront fee. Fictional hero Adrian Mole damn near lives on the things. And indeed, after a night fueled by a few pints of bitter and a dram or two of whiskey, it makes a fine breakfast, until one is the far side of 25.

However, Ofcom is working to ban junk food advertising to under-16s. Masterfoods, here, may be trying to pre-empt the move. After all, the under-12s don’t have that much pocket money, and don’t get to walk down to the shops without Mum and/or Dad that often. It’s harder to tell a 15-year-old that he or she can’t decide what candy bar to buy. Indeed, one should be grateful that the said teenager isn’t trying to decide what brand of tobacco to get.

All of this pre-supposes that junk food advertising has an effect on creating new junkies. Hamish Pringle from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, a group with a dog in the fight to be sure, said, “There’s no evidence whatsoever that under 16-year-olds need protecting from this kind of advertising.” Or that advertising works more than once.

While this journal is pro-Mars Bar, one must acknowledge that there are some candy bars that are, well, bloody awful. Fry’s Turkish Delight from Britain springs to mind, a mouthful of horrid chocolate-covered jelly, a disappointment in every bite. One can get a 10-year-old to buy it once but never after that. In which case, every penny Masterfoods spends after an unpleasant experience is wasted. Socially responsible, pre-empting a more draconian regulation and costing very little in sales: quite a good decision all things considered.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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