Obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes - in order to combat the consequences of an unhealthy diet, calls have been loud for years to ban advertising for unhealthy foods that are specifically aimed at children.
The responsible minister Julia Klöckner reacted with a new, voluntary self-restraint for the advertising industry.
Internal documents from your ministry now show: your own ministry apparently has doubts that this will bring anything.
by Martin Rücker
A few weeks ago, Federal Food Minister Julia Klöckner and the advertising industry were both happy: "The advertising industry is taking on responsibility," said the Central Association of the German Advertising Industry (ZAW). Federal Minister of Food, Julia Klöckner, announced at the same time a “stricter regulation for food advertising aimed at children”. But the jubilation is deceptive: It is still allowed to market unhealthy food specifically to children.
The reason are months of arduous negotiations between Klöckner's ministry and the advertising industry.
How this happened is shown for the first time by previously unpublished documents from the ministry, which Ippen Investigativ - the research team of the Ippen publishing group, to which our editorial team belongs - are exclusively available: e-mails, meeting minutes, internal notes - a total of 79 pages, transmitted by the ministry on an application under the Freedom of Information Act.
The documents show:
Klöckner's ministry recognizes the problems and the causes: But a serious legal regulation was never up for discussion.
The compromise was preceded by a tough deal in which the industry sometimes showed itself to be cooperative, sometimes tried to threaten Klöckner.
The minister first bluffed and pushed the EU forward.
Your officials cited some of the big names as daunting examples: Nimm2, Milka, Kellogg's, and Ferrero.
In the meantime it was thought in the ministry that public service broadcasting was a “blocker” of tougher advertising restrictions.
At the end of the negotiations, there is a compromise that Julia Klöckner publicly praises, but her ministry apparently does not really believe in its effectiveness.
According to the ZAW, since June it has been "no longer permissible" to emphasize positive nutritional properties in unbalanced foods.
At least that is how the voluntary code for advertising in TV and video formats, which is aimed specifically at children under 14, sees it.
The criticism was not long in coming: Klaus Müller, head of the consumer advice centers, called the innovation a “transparent deception maneuver”, saw “only cosmetic corrections” to the previous voluntary code of conduct in the advertising industry.
"If you don't drink Coke, you're not cool!"
The negotiations will begin on March 17, 2020 with an informal conference call between Klöckner's specialist department and Katja Heintschel von Heinegg, Managing Director of the ZAW Advertising Association and the German Advertising Council, the association's self-regulatory body.
Although the advertising council has a code of conduct, the ministerial officials see “deficits” in it.
Klöckner has a legal obligation: A new EU “Audiovisual Media Services Directive” requires the member states to “effectively reduce” advertising for foods high in sugar, fat and salt. For this purpose, the industry's “rules of conduct” up to now are inadequate from the point of view of the ministry: They only advise not to portray it negatively when people do without unhealthy food. What is meant are advertising slogans such as the fictitious claim "If you don't drink a Coke, you're uncool!", Notes Klöckner's specialist department. The code of conduct, on the other hand, allows positive statements: and with it statements such as “the 'extra portion of milk' in advertising for children's chocolate”. However, it is precisely such statements that the EU states should prevent in future.
And the ministry wants to change something else: The advertising council's code only targets under-12s.
The ministry, on the other hand, wants to protect everyone under the age of 14.
So the officials begin to explore what is possible.
"Sub-normative solution" with "quasi-official paint"
ZAW managing director Heintschel von Heinegg reacts cautiously.
A change to the recently amended “rules of conduct” is “not feasible in the short term or cannot be enforced within the association”, she is quoted in a note from the ministry.
Instead, it offers “a 'sub-normative solution” with a “quasi-official coating”: The wishes of the ministry could be included in the guidelines for the rules of conduct and “interpreted” there.
The association therefore offers a non-binding interpretation aid for self-regulation that is already non-binding. And he holds out a "'semi-official' 'declaration of intent" for a later change in the code of conduct.
All of this would be even more non-binding than the already loose rules of behavior, and yet Klöckner's officials are on the verge of giving in: the industry association's proposal is "the best negotiable result at this stage," they report to their minister.
But then political pressure builds up. Medical societies and the World Health Organization have long been calling for a restriction on advertising for unhealthy foods aimed at children - as have consumer advice centers. They submit a survey: 83 percent of those questioned are in favor of only allowing balanced products to be marketed specifically to children. The state-run Robert Koch Institute is also going public with the recommendation for stricter regulation.
In the summer of 2020, Julia Klöckner's own Scientific Advisory Board will also be blowing in the same horn, an advisory team with almost 20 respected scientists. In an extensive report, he clearly criticizes the previous rules of conduct in the advertising industry: These are "obviously implemented very 'cautiously', since child-related additions (plastic figures, etc.) are still used in food marketing". In addition, the advertising advisory service is usually only active in the event of a complaint, "major effects of these advertising regulations cannot be identified". Rather, a study has shown that the proportion of commercials for unhealthy foods "even increased" after the introduction of the previous voluntary commitment.
In August 2020, Klöckner will push the topic forward internally. A problem for the Central Association of the German Advertising Industry, whose members do not want that. So Klöckner's officials and the ZAW managing director agree that the minister should send an official “letter of formal notice”. In this way, the association can better argue to its members why the topic is now on the table again. Klöckner's letter arrives on September 7th. In the case of ZAW President Andreas Schubert, the minister “emphatically” demands that positive statements for unhealthy foods be excluded from the rules of conduct. Andreas Schubert - himself a former food manager (Bahlsen, Kühne) and board member of the Federal Association of the Food Industry - reacts immediately. He asks for a personal interview.December is scheduled.
Politically, the momentum is increasing.
The British government has announced a ban on advertising for so-called junk food on television and the Internet before 9 p.m.
In Germany, the SPD and the Greens publicly advocate advertising bans.
"That will create a completely unnecessary resistance"
A week before the meeting, another lobbyist contacts Klöckner: Hans-Henning Wiegmann, former head of the Oetker subsidiary Henkell and now chairman of the advertising council.
In his letter he describes the self-regulation practice as “exemplary” and warns of “further regulations and laws”.
"We always knew the parties of the CDU and CSU (and the FDP) were by our side because, like us, maintaining a functioning social market economy is important to us," writes the ex-manager - and sends a hardly concealed warning to Klöckner: The “Discrimination against products” and “the unsubstantiated assumption of effective connections between advertising and health” are “unacceptable”, as well as “interference with free and uncensored advertising beyond the existing legal framework”, certainly not “for tactical or populist motives” : "That fits neither with our economic system, nor with you personally and your party and will trigger unnecessary resistance in the economy and in your ranks."
He therefore asked not to jeopardize the “hitherto undisputed basic style of the economy and the CDU / CSU” by “another policy of prohibition”.
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Sends a hardly concealed warning to the minister: The chairman of the advertising council, Hans-Henning Wiegmann.
© Letter from Hans-Henning Wiegmann to Federal Minister Klöckner.
15 percent of children in Germany are overweight, six percent are obese.
There is broad scientific consensus that unhealthy nutrition and the advertising for it have their share in this.
In its report, Klöckner's advisory board lists the reasons for this in minute detail: Food manufacturers make much higher profits with confectionery or soft drinks than with fruit and vegetables. So you have an economic interest in primarily selling these products - which is why “considerably more advertising is placed for unhealthy foods [...] than for health-promoting foods”, according to the Scientific Advisory Board of the Ministry of Food.
The effect of advertising is "clearly" underestimated. "Scientific studies show that advertising for food and drinks aimed at children increases their calorie intake and is associated with an increase in morbid obesity," says pediatrician Berthold Koletzko, chairman of the Children's Health Foundation and the nutrition commission of the German Society for Child and Adolescent Medicine , on request.
On December 10, 2020, the Klöckner summit meeting with ZAW President Schubert, Managing Director Bernd Nauen and Managing Director Heintschel von Heinegg will take place via video conference. Klöckner's experts do not really expect the ZAW to present "sufficient" proposals in advance: "The advertising council may try to bridge the period until the next Koa [-litions] contract largely without changes," they write to their minister in a Template.
Particularly interesting: At this point in time, the ministry also classifies the public broadcasters, who are themselves ZAW members, as "blockers" of tougher measures - the association, on the other hand, will emphasize at the meeting that they are "not the 'problem bears'".
In the proposal for conducting the interview, the specialist department advises the minister to make a threat, namely "having to take more into account state regulation".
A card that, as evidenced by the minutes and letters available to us, Klöckner does not draw.
In the video conference she leaves it, according to the protocol, with reference to "that parties are currently writing their election programs".
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Klöckner's officials suspect that public service broadcasting could be one of the “blockers” of tougher measures against advertising for unhealthy food.
© Note from the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture from the beginning of December 2020.
"Major parts of the CDU / CSU" against advertising bans
And so the documents from the ministry show one thing above all: The minister apparently never seriously considers a really effective state regulation - although she had received enough ammunition for it from her scientific advisors.
In their summer report, the professors also cite a study on the effects of different advertising restrictions on unhealthy foods.
According to this, there was an increase in junk food consumption of almost 14 percent between 2002 and 2016 in countries without advertising restrictions, while consumption declined in countries with restrictions.
On average by nine percent - but only where the restrictions were also
mandatory
.
In countries with
voluntary
advertising restrictions, junk food consumption was almost 2 percent higher in 2016 than 14 years earlier.
In the “background note” for the minister it is said that the German Food Association, the Confectionery Industry Association and the Sugar Industry Association consider state advertising bans to be “unsuitable”, and that the FDP parliamentary group as well as “major parts of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group” are against legal ones Restrictions.
Klöckner is trying to get between the chairs: She argues that the deadline under European law for the implementation of the EU directive has expired and that the European Commission has already opened infringement proceedings against Germany.
Apparently, the minister wants to give the impression that her room for maneuver is limited - a bluff, as the "background note" of her specialist lecture on preparation for the discussion suggests.
Because there it suddenly says, contrary to what was previously claimed: “The tightening of the rules of conduct is, however, probably not for reporting the full implementation [of the EU directive;
Editor's note] absolutely necessary. "
The big names in the industry as negative examples
The ZAW sticks to its position, describes its rules of conduct as "already comprehensive and sufficient", there is no longer any particularly problematic advertising - this is noted in the ministry's minutes. Nevertheless, the association is “willing to compromise” and wants to adjust the disputed definition of age for children. Everything else should be discussed further at the technical level. There is no real result.
The ministry is now increasing the pressure.
A few days after the video conference, an officer sent the ZAW by email links to advertising videos that were viewed "critically" in the ministry, including the big ones in the industry: Spots by Storck (take 2 laughing gums, including "vitamins and nibbles"), Ferrero (children's bars with the representation of a woman in the shape of a running milk glass), Milka (“the good alpine milk”) and Kellogg's Frosties, “with lots of good corn that get you ready for the day” - but also “almost 37% sugar “Contained, as the ministry emphasizes.
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Klöckner's ministry lists some of the big names in the industry as negative examples.
© Mail traffic from the Ministry of Food from December 14th, 2020
The next round of negotiations will take place on December 18th - and the next point of contention. On the one hand, the ZAW gives in, wants to exclude the communication of positive properties in unhealthy foods "in the context of children's programs" in the future. But that is not enough for the ministry, because formats like “Germany's next top model” are by definition not “children's programs” despite a young audience.
Another meeting in January about this “dissent” is agreed.
According to this, the ZAW will present a confidential draft of the revised code of conduct on January 18, 2021.
In the ministry, the response is divided: The officials are satisfied with the exclusion of advertising for unhealthy food, because it now includes all "audiovisual" forms, not just children's programs, and thus goes beyond the EU requirements.
However, there is still haggling over the age limit.
The new draft raises it from below 12 to below 14 - but only for children's programs here.
For other advertising environments, the rules of conduct continued to apply only to those under the age of 14.
“Good work,” notes the minister
The breakthrough came in an evening conversation between ZAW Managing Director Nauen and the ministry in February after almost a year of tough negotiations. The ZAW “showed its understanding”, reports Klöckner's head of department to the minister. One day after this last conversation, the ZAW sends the ministry a new "confidential draft" that removes the criticism: Children are now always all under 14-year-olds, and the code recommends that people do not emphasize "positive nutritional properties." Foods ”which are composed in such a way that“ excessive intake is not recommended as part of a balanced overall diet ”in audiovisual advertising targeted at children.
So it will finally be presented to the public in April.
"Good work", Klöckner notes in handwriting on the report of her head of department, "the persistence of the BMEL has paid off in the first step".
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“Good work,” notes the minister - while her own ministry is skeptical as to whether the compromise that has been reached will bring anything.
© Ministerial draft from the Ministry of Food.
February 2021.
But what does the successful negotiation bring in the matter? Will the new code really “effectively reduce” advertising for the unhealthy? The documents now available to our editors show that the ministry itself seems to have doubts. The foods to which the restriction applies is nowhere specified, and no reference is made to nutritional criteria. It is also not clearly defined when advertising is aimed “specifically” at children. Beyond audiovisual formats, advertising for children remains permitted, for example through the design of the packaging. And the “rules of conduct” remain voluntary. The ministry rates it as a "substantial improvement", but seems unsure whether that will be enough:"Indeed, the effectiveness of the revised rules will depend on their practical application by the Advertising Council and its members," notes the Head of Unit. Klöckner should therefore "urge the industry to consistently enforce the new standards in order to ensure adequate protection of children."
That’s taken care of.
In March, the AOK Bundesverband published a study by the University of Hamburg, according to which children using the media see an average of 15 commercials for (according to WHO criteria) “unhealthy food” every day.
Almost nine out of ten food commercials promoted unhealthy products.
This should also include the Ferrero children's bar.
Because the depiction of the “milk woman” criticized by Klöckner's ministry continued to be seen prominently in a spot on the Ferrero product website in mid-August - two and a half months after the new rules of conduct came into force.
Disclosure: The author was the managing director of the consumer organization foodwatch until the end of February 2021 and is now working as a freelance journalist again.
Do you have information or documents that we should report on? You can contact the Ippen Investigativ editorial team at recherche@buzzfeed.de.