Exploring the potential impact of the proposed UK TV and online food advertising regulations: a concept mapping study.
BMJ Open 2022 ; 12: e060302.
Forde H, Boyland EJ, Scarborough P, Smith R, White M, Adams J
DOI : 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-060302
PubMed ID : 35715182
PMCID :
URL : https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/6/e060302
Abstract
In July 2020 the UK Government announced an intention to restrict advertisements for products high in fat, salt or sugar on live broadcast, catch-up and on-demand television before 21:00 hours; and paid for online advertising. As no other jurisdiction has implemented similar regulations, there is no empirical evidence about how they might perturb the food system. To guide the regulations' implementation and evaluation, we aimed to develop a concept map to hypothesise their potential consequences for the commercial food system, health and society.
We used adapted group concept mapping in four virtual workshops with food marketing and regulation experts across academia, civil society, government organisations, and industry (n=14), supported by Miro software. We merged concepts derived from the four workshops to develop a master map and then invited feedback from participants via email to generate a final concept map.
The concept map shows how the reactions of stakeholders to the regulations may reinforce or undermine the impact on the commercial food system, health and society. The map shows adaptations made by stakeholders that could reinforce, or undermine, positive impacts on public health. It also illustrates potential weaknesses in the design and implementation of the regulations that could result in little substantial difference to public health.
Prior to the regulations' initial implementation or subsequent iterations, they could be altered to maximise the potential for reinforcing adaptations, minimise the potential for undermining adaptations and ensure they cover a wide range of advertising opportunities and foods. The concept map will also inform the design of an evaluation of the regulations and could be used to inform the design and evaluation of similar regulations elsewhere.
Lay Summary
The UK Government are planning to regulate advertisements for food and drinks that are high in fat, salt or sugar on live broadcast, catch-up and on-demand television before 9pm; and paid for online advertising. As these regulations have not existed before, we do not yet know what effects they might have. In this study, we used workshops to ask experts how they thought the regulations might affect food, health and society more broadly. We held four workshops online with 14 people in total, who worked in academia, civil society, government organisations, and industry. We made a map to illustrate the responses in workshops, which we created using software called Miro. The map shows that people and organisations affected by the regulations could respond to them in ways that contribute to improved health, or undermine it. The map could be used to inform an evaluation of the regulations.