The International Chamber of Commerce has drawn up a Framework for Responsible Food and Beverage Communications, prepared by representatives from leading international companies and advertising associations from a wide range of countries, which it unveiled last week.
A large portion of the ICC framework is devoted to marketing to children, "the most educable segment of the consumer population", as the ICC puts it - but also one of the most potentially lucrative target markets for manufacturers.
Among the recommendations in the framework document are that food and beverage adverts should not encourage or condone excess consumption, that portion sizes should be appropriate to the setting portrayed, that all nutritional and health benefit claims for food and beverage products should have a sound scientific basis and that scientific terms should not be used to falsely ascribe scientific validity to advertising claims.
On the issue of advertising directed to children, the framework document recommends that 'personalities' - including cartoon characters - should not be used "in a manner that obscures the distinction between programme or editorial content and commercial promotion".
Advertisements should not exploit the inexperience or credulity of children and young people, the framework suggests, adding that advertisers should also avoid suggestions that "possession or use of a product alone will give the child or young person physical, social or psychological advantage over other children or young people of the same age, or that non-possession of the product would have the opposite effect".
Ads should also not include any direct appeal to children to persuade their parents to buy a particular advertised product for them, nor should they undermine the role of parents and other adults responsible for a child's welfare in guiding diet and lifestyle choices.
Furthermore, the document suggests that food and beverage advertising should not undermine the promotion of healthy lifestyles, and that food products not intended to be substitutes for meals should not be presented as such.
"The strength of this framework is that it represents an action-oriented, global business consensus across sectors and borders," said John Manfredi, senior vice president of the Gillette Company, and chair of the ICC Commission on Marketing and Advertising. "It provides a very clear, uniform interpretation of existing codes that self-regulatory bodies can use to monitor and enforce compliance in the area of food and beverage marketing."
The problem with many of these regulations is that they are frequently open to a fairly broad level of interpretation (the effect of using 'personalities', for example, is hard to quantify) and in any case, regulating the advertising of food products is only part of the solution - the way in which products are packaged, displayed in stores, promotions they use to attract customers can also influence purchasing decisions.
The regulations summarised in the framework have, nonetheless, helped reduce some of the potential excesses of advertisers, but evidence suggests that consumer power still remains the most powerful weapon in the armoury of anti-obesity crusaders.
A recent report from market analysts Mintel shows a significant change in some advertisers' spending on promoting their products to children. Masterfoods, for example, spent £5.7 million on promoting its Mars bar in UK children's media in 2000, according to Mintel, but this had dropped by 71.4 per cent by 2003, to £1.2 million - a change attributed squarely to growing consumer concerns about health.
But children are still a hugely attractive target market for advertisers, no matter how many restrictions are imposed on what they can and cannot say. TV advertising data from Nielsen Media Research in the UK - based on monthly estimates from TV stations - suggest that the leading food company advertisers are continuing to spend large sums of money on children.
Estimated total TV adspend by the top 10 food advertisers in 2003 was £22.1 million, according to Nielsen Media, a 37.9 per cent increase on the previous year, with breakfast cereal manufacturer Kellogg the number one advertiser, accounting for £4.8 million, roughly the same level as the year before.
The Nielsen data also hints at another interesting trend - a significant increase in the level of advertising expenditure during pre-school programming. The 82 per cent increase in adspend during this kind of programme between 2002 and 2003 could, of course, be related to an increase in the number of pre-school programmes broadcast, or the fact that this has perennially been an under-exploited sector, rather than a policy of targeting even younger children, but the figures nonetheless speak for themselves.
More and more young Britons are being subjected to adverts for food and drink products from the likes of McDonald's, Nestlé and Kellogg, and while there is no suggestion that all these adverts are for 'unhealthy' foods - or indeed that any of the ads have failed to meet the requirements imposed by UK advertising regulator - the fact remains that eating habits of children are being influenced at an ever earlier age.
While parents still have the ultimate choice over what their children eat - at least at the pre-school age - pester power plays an increasingly important part in influencing what adults buy for their kids, and the fact that this could now be starting at an ever earlier age must surely be a cause for concern - no matter how 'ethical' a stance food and drink advertisers are persuaded to take.