Revelations by the British Medical Journal of how advertising industry lobbying has thwarted some local healthier food advertising policies should not deter Merseyside’s Sefton Council to stick to its own healthy advertising policy.

That is the view of Dr Margaret Jones, Sefton Council’s Director of Public Health, whose team led the development of the initiative.

Direct interference

An in-depth investigation by the BMJ, which included sending FOIs to 52 English councils, showed evidence of direct interference from the advertising industry. This included communications to delay, water down and exaggerate financial risks of healthy advertising policies to local authorities that have adapted them.

Misinformation shared by advertisers aimed to stoke the financial fears of financially challenged councils, says the BMJ.

Ban

In 2024, Sefton Council agreed its Healthy Advertising Policy, which included a ban on junk food products high in fat, salt and sugar, on council-owned advertising sites.

Margaret Jones says: “By adopting a Healthy Advertising Policy in Sefton, we want people across Sefton to have a wider choice by shifting the spotlight to healthier options.

“Our main aim is to protect the most vulnerable and improves community resilience by encouraging advertising that broadens healthier food and drink choices.

“Aggressive and powerful marketing of unhealthy food does not encourage this broadening of choice. Instead, it aggressively limits choice by suggesting the products being sold are the only option, meaning people’s ability to choose has been taken away from them.

“And as we can see from this BMJ research, the advertising industry is taking an active role in this process and targeting councils with policies like ours with interference and misinformation.”

“tobacco playbook” of tactics

The BMJ report says that councils, including Sefton neighbours Liverpool City Council, have faced a ‘“tobacco playbook” of tactics to stymie their plans’. These included, the BMJ says, ‘financial warnings and claims advertisers “can be part of the solution” to obesity.

Dr Jones continues:  “We know that the marketing of less healthy products is targeted at children in our most deprived areas. While we are already doing a great deal of work to tackle child poverty in Sefton, this is a factor we know we need to address.

“For almost 20 years, the major companies those advertisers represent have been using Nutrient Profiling to work out which products they can promote.

“The Nutrient Profiling model was developed by the Food Standards Agency to help Ofcom differentiate foods and improve the balance of that television advertising to children. Nearly 20 years on it would not be complicated or onerous for these companies to manage.”

Beneficial nutrients

Introduced in 2005/4, Nutrient Profiling uses a scoring system that balances the contribution made by beneficial nutrients that are particularly important in children’s diets with components in the food that children should eat less of. The overall score indicates whether that food (or drink) can be advertised on TV during children’s viewing time, or not.

Jones adds:

“We know that visible endorsement is powerful and that the unhealthy advertising with which children and families are regularly bombarded adversely affects their food choices.

“So, by shifting the balance to promoting healthier food with less emphasis on products high in saturated fat, salt and sugar, we want to encourage a healthier balance.

“And as well as reduce inequalities across the Borough, it results in reduced waste and cleaner neighbourhoods, which has a positive knock-on effect on climate change.”

Healthy school catering

In 2017, Sefton Council signed the Local Authority Declaration on Healthy Weight to mark its commitment to promoting healthy weight through improved food and drink provision. This included endorsing healthy school catering.

In preparing its Healthy Advertising Policy, the Council acknowledges that it has benefitted hugely from the work Knowsley did as a first adopter in the Liverpool City Region. Sefton also works closely with Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, who have provided valuable expertise in terms of assurance on issues like loss of revenue and the modelling work that was done with TfL and Sheffield University.

Far-reaching benefits

Margaret Jones concludes:

“Adopting the healthy advertising Policy is just the beginning. We need to demonstrate its long-term and far-reaching benefits to a broad range of stakeholders. And having highlighted the issue, we need to maintain the focus.

“We will be working with our partners and our communications teams to spotlight the policy and its widespread outcomes and benefits.

“It's early days but we are confident this is a piece of work that can have a positive and long-lasting effect not only for Sefton and the Liverpool City Region but across the whole country.

“As I have mentioned we are not introducing anything the industry is not fully aware of and able to deal with. We are simply trying to create an environment where everyone, wherever they live, can make the same informed choices.

“I hope that rather than trying to put obstacles in our way at the cost of people’s health, the food industry and its advertisers will work with us to implement health changes, which they can fully afford to implement.”

You can find the BMJ article here.

Sefton Council introduce new healthy advertising policy to reap health and climate benefits