Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My name is Linda Nagel and I'm president of Advertising Standards Canada. I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to meet with you today to discuss how food advertising in Canada is regulated and the role that Advertising Standards Canada, or ASC, my organization, plays in the regulation of food advertising to children.
Over the next few minutes, I'll provide some perspective on three topics: one, the role of ASC in the framework of responsible advertising regulation; two, the double-hurdle pre-clearance requirement for children's food broadcast advertising to ensure compliance with both Canada's Food and Drugs Act and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters broadcast code for advertising to children; and three, ASC's mechanisms for responding to consumers' complaints about advertising.
ASC is the national advertising self-regulatory body. Since its inception in 1957, our mandate remains unchanged: to ensure the integrity and viability of advertising in Canada through responsible advertising self-regulation. Fundamental to our efforts is the Canadian code of advertising standards, known as the code, which is the principal instrument of advertising self-regulation in Canada. The code was first published in 1963 and is regularly updated to keep it contemporary. The code's 14 clauses and its accompanying interpretation guidelines set the standards for acceptable advertising in all media, including print, broadcast, Internet, and billboards. The clauses of the code form the basis for adjudicating consumers' complaints about advertising. Advertising in Canada is highly regulated, and our code provides a complement to the existing legislative and regulatory framework.
The code is a nimble instrument. It can be easily updated to meet current and emerging issues. For example, as my colleague Cathy Loblaw mentioned, the code was amended two years ago to include a provision to prohibit depictions of bullying in advertising. As well, two interpretation guidelines were added to provide guidance on advertising to children, with specific reference to food advertising.
Given our unique self-regulatory mandate, over the years ASC became the logical and natural home for a number of advertising pre-clearance functions. Pre-clearance is the evaluation of an advertising message in advance of broadcast to ensure that it complies with a specific or pertinent regulation or regulatory framework. We started to pre-clear children's commercials in the 1970s, as Martine Vallee, from the CRTC, just mentioned. Then in the 1990s, at the request of advertisers and broadcasters, ASC's pre-clearance complement expanded to encompass broadcast advertising for food, cosmetics, alcoholic beverages, and non-prescription drugs. Today, ASC pre-clears over 11,000 advertisements per year. This important review function provides assurance to consumers, government, and industry that advertising complies with the pertinent regulatory framework.
Let's turn to the regulation of children's broadcast advertising. Recognizing the vulnerability and nature of the child audience, children's broadcast advertising is subject to two separate pre-clearances. The first is a technical review. In Canada, all food advertising, whether it be broadcast or not and whether directed to children or adults, must meet the requirements delineated in the Food and Drugs Act and regulations and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's guide to food labelling and advertising. Pre-clearance of broadcast food advertising by ASC helps ensure compliance with these requirements. This stringent technical review is provided by ASC's team of professional clearance analysts. Acceptable advertising submissions are assigned a clearance approval number that signifies to broadcasters that the ad complies with the regulations. ASC, of course, maintains a regular dialogue with Health Canada and the CFIA to ensure that we remain correct and current in our application of the act and the regulations.
Children's broadcast advertising is then subject to a second level of review or pre-clearance under the provisions of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, or CAB's, broadcast code for advertising to children, which we call the children's code.
Martine Vallee mentioned that this code was developed in the seventies to ensure that the special nature of the child audience was recognized. Canada's private broadcasters agreed to comply with the code as a condition of broadcast licence. The children's code applies to all of Canada, except for Quebec, where advertising is regulated under the Quebec Consumer Protection Act.
Included in the children's code is a requirement that all children's commercials, both food and non-food, be pre-cleared by an independent committee, the children's clearance committee. This committee convenes solely for the purpose of reviewing finished children's commercials. The committee includes public and private broadcasters, advertising industry members, and public representatives. The public representatives are nominated by consumer organizations, and they must be parents of children under the age of 12.
Approved children's commercials are assigned an ASC children's clearance number. Therefore, food commercials have two numbers before they air: one that says they comply with Canada's food laws and the second number signifying compliance with the children's code. The combination of Canada's stringent regulatory framework and the two required pre-clearances make our Canadian system unique around the world.
Time won't permit me to run through the whole children's code, but there are copies that have been provided to you in English and French. Of course, key among them are the ones that Martine mentioned: the prohibition in children's advertising against product endorsement by well-known personalities, a prohibition against suggesting a product will enhance a child's status, and restrictions on advertising frequency during children's programs.
As well, the interpretation guideline to clause 11 of the children's code--a new one--on food advertising was adopted in 2004. This requires that commercial messages be consistent with the provisions of the Food and Drugs Act--again, a reminder of the first level of clearance--that snack foods not be represented as meals, and that advertisements depicting a mealtime setting present a product within the context of a balanced diet.
Over 2,500 children's commercials are submitted to ASC each year for review by the children's committee. Of these, approximately 55% are for children's movies and entertainment, 35% are for toys and games, and 10% are for food products and restaurants.
Turning now to consumers' complaints, as the advertising self-regulatory body, ASC accepts consumers' complaints about advertising under the provisions of the Canadian code of advertising standards, or the code. While most complaints come to ASC directly from the concerned consumer, some are forwarded to us from regulatory bodies such as the CRTC, or from organizations such as the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.
Complaints are adjudicated by independent national and regional volunteer councils, which include both senior industry and public representatives. Of the 1,200 consumers' complaints that ASC received last year, 10% of these were about food advertisements. Virtually all of these, however, involved matters of personal opinion. They could have been for any category of advertising as they did not involve a food or nutrition issue. Not one of these complaints related to a children's food commercial. It's not unexpected that the rigorous pre-clearance process under the food regulatory framework and the children's code result in minimal complaints about nutrition-related issues.
In summary, the Canadian system, involving stringent regulatory and self-regulatory standards, advertising pre-clearance, and an accessible consumer complaints mechanism, has served Canadians well for almost fifty years. However, the pace of change continues to accelerate, and we need to continue to be nimble in setting and maintaining responsible advertising standards to meet current and emerging needs.
Thank you very much.