Unhealthy food marketing: A global framework

Evidence shows that children are exposed to high volumes of unhealthy food marketing globally and that exposure to this marketing influences children’s preferences and consumption of unhealthy foods.¹ Unhealthy diet is a key modifiable risk factor for non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers and type 2 diabetes.²

The WHO sums up the evidence on the reach of unhealthy food marketing:³⁴

“Food marketing is pervasive globally. It typically uses persuasive and entertaining messages and experiences to engage children, exploiting their vulnerability, impulsiveness and ability to be easily influenced. More than ever, children are exposed to marketing across multiple channels, including online (via digital marketing), where they are frequently encouraged to share positive experiences with their friends, amplifying the effects of food marketing through peer influence. The collection of personal data from children online is increasingly used to inform behavioural advertising, specifying audiences with precision and targeting the most vulnerable.”

In 2010, the 63^rd World Health Assembly unanimously endorsed a resolution that outlined a set of 12 recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO) that urged member states to protect children from unhealthy food marketing. Australia was a signatory to this resolution.³ In 2023, the WHO updated these recommendations⁵ and with UNICEF released an implementation toolkit guide⁴ to provide practical guidance to Member States to strengthen action globally to protect children from the harmful impacts of unhealthy food marketing through a child rights perspective.

The WHO recommendations provide broad guidance to Member States on policy aims, and principles around effective implementation and monitoring for food marketing.⁵ They are particularly clear on the need to keep settings where children gather free of unhealthy food marketing, including settings such as pre-schools, schools, playgrounds, health clinics for children and families and venues for sporting and cultural activities. The WHO also highlights the importance of the digital marketing environment, which is increasingly pervasive and influential.³

The WHO guidelines⁵ recommend Member States implement policies to restrict marketing of foods high in saturated fatty acids, trans-fatty acids, free sugars and/or salt to which children are exposed, and that such policies:

1. be mandatory
2. protect children of all ages
3. use a government-led nutrient profile model to classify foods to be restricted from marketing
4. be sufficiently comprehensive to minimize the risk of migration of marketing to other media, to other spaces within the same medium or to other age groups; and
5. restrict the power of food marketing to persuade.

These recommendations acknowledge that today’s food environment is vastly different to that experienced by previous generations. It is characterised by wide availability and heavy marketing of unhealthy food and drinks that offer palatability, novelty and convenience. That marketing is pervasive and reaches children through all media platforms and places where they gather, such as schools, supermarkets, at sports clubs, on television and the internet.

Role of Children’s Rights

There is a role for international human rights law in restricting the marketing of unhealthy food to children, including states’ obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).⁶ While various human rights instruments could be used to achieve this goal, the CRC is the most ratified human rights instrument in the world and provides a legal framework for a child rights-based approach to prevention of obesity and non-communicable diseases⁴ The CRC builds on the International Bill of Human Rights, acknowledging the unique sensitivities of children and their need for special protection.⁷ Australia ratified the CRC in December 1990, which means the government has a duty to ensure that all children in Australia enjoy the rights set out in the treaty.⁷

Advocates for a child rights-based approach to unhealthy food marketing say it provides a powerful and universally applicable way to consider children as rights holders in this area who are central to any policy discourse.⁷ Relevant rights include the right to health (Article 24), the right to food (Article 24 and Article 27), the right to life, survival and development (Article 6)⁷, and the right to protection from economic exploitation (Article 32).⁸ The right to privacy (Article 16) has also been identified as relevant given the proliferation of digital marketing techniques that collect large amounts of children’s personal information.⁸

In General Comment No.15 (2013) on the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (the Committee), explicitly addressed the issue of unhealthy food marketing. The Committee stated that marketing of unhealthy food and beverages to children should be regulated to protect their health and called on governments to implement measures to restrict such marketing.⁹ In its 2021 General Comment No.25 on children’s rights in the digital environment, the Committee further emphasised that marketing of ‘unhealthy products, including certain food and beverages’ should be regulated to prevent children’s exposure, and that such regulation applying to the digital environment should ‘keep pace’ with regulations applying offline. Additionally, the Committee called on States to put the best interest of the child first when regulating marketing in the digital environment.¹⁰

Content for this page was reviewed and updated by Rebecca Bennett and Kathryn Backholer at the Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition at Deakin University. For more information about the approach to content on the site please see About | Obesity Evidence Hub.