Table 1 PAHO and self-regulatory PABI code criteria definitions used to identify food industry compliance in marketing

2003Selected criteria

Definition

Use of characters

Not using or related to animated characters, cartoons, actors, musicians, artists or sports celebrities, and children.

Location

In recommendation 7, the PAHO expert consultation group established that “marketing” should be defined as all marketing techniques through all communication channels, including messages disseminated in schools and other places where children gather and spend time. These places include schools, parks, sport centers, nurseries, doctors’ offices, and any other places where children congregate.

In terms of this study, we defined any advertisement within 100 m of a school as marketing in places where children gather and spend time.

Promotions, incentives, and discounts

The PAHO recommends restricting advertisements for foods high in saturated fat, trans fatty acids, sugar free, or salt (including special offers and incentives such as sweepstakes, coupons, or other discounts).

Selected criteria

Definition

Price

The price of the food must be declared in a concrete and understandable manner. Use of specific words such as “only” and “less than” should be avoided when referring to price.

Characteristics

According to PABI, publicity has to be accurate when showing food or beverage product characteristics, without assigning nutritional values or superior characteristics to those that the product has.

It is important to mention that the code does not include specific criteria to evaluate food product characteristics. Therefore, we considered advertisements as non-compliant with the code when the images shown did not correspond with product characteristics such as flavor, size, content, and nutritional properties. The most common case of non-compliance we found was that of nutritional values in advertisements showing images of food (fruits) that a product (soda) does not contain.

Status

It is forbidden to mislead or confuse a child with the idea of a characteristic of superiority that would be acquired by consuming the product, such as increased strength, popularity, or attractiveness.