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The StanMark Project

The StanMark project has made a series of proposals for a set of universal marketing standards, which was presented to a Stakeholder Conference in March 2011 and which were edited and re-presented in the report A Junk-Free Childhood.

An update of this report was published in September 2012 - see here.

For a list of academic references related to marketing click here

Project summary

International agencies recognise that there is a need for a code of marketing standards for promoting food and beverages to children, especially where this marketing crosses national borders – e.g. through media such as the internet, satellite TV channels, and product placement in broadcast sports events and in internationally distributed games, videos and movies.

The StanMark project aims to bring together researchers and policy-makers to establish a set of standards for marketing foods and beverages which would be acceptable to the main stakeholders. An analysis of existing standards, regulations and voluntary initiatives will be developed, along with a review of the application of cross-sector standards from other industries, such as those developed for sustainable fish supplies and sustainable forestry.

The project started in February 2010 and is expected to conclude in mid-2011. It is part-funded by the European Commission’s Directorate for External Relations.

General objective

The StanMark project aims to help protect child health by bringing together scientific and policy-making expertise, in order to develop international standards for marketing foods and beverages to children.

Specific objectives

• Convene a series of meetings to bring together key members of the scientific research community and policy-making community to consider specific aspects of marketing to children which may relate to their health, including nature of the product being promoted, medium used for promotion, methods and techniques used for promotion, age of the children being targeted, and views of stakeholders (including children, parents, advertisers, food producers, health workers, representatives of civil society);
• Identify current schemes and strategies to control promotional marketing to children, including measures not specifically addressing foods and beverages, or not specifically directed to child protection;
• Explore the use of standards and marketing codes to influence commercial activity, including standards from other industrial sectors;
• Propose a set of standards which can be utilised as a cross-border code of marketing to be applied by companies and monitored by governments and independent agencies;
• Convene a stakeholder meeting to present the findings of the project;
• Develop a web-based set of resources for awareness-raising and policy development on food marketing to children, in order to build capacity in advocacy organisations around the globe.

Resources

A Junk-Free Childhood, 2011

A Junk-Free Childhood, 2012

Acadamic research on marketing

The StanMark Project has received funding from the European Community (DG External Relations, agreement SI2.548975). Sole responsibility for the project lies with the participating organisations; the European Commission is not responsible for the use that may be made of any material arising from this project. The participating organisations are the International Association for the Study of Obesity, the Metropolitan University College of Copenhagen, Denmark, and The Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Yale University, USA.