The aim of this book was to explain and evaluate what children’s rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) require of states when faced with marketing that promotes an unhealthy diet. Furthermore, the approach taken recognised and evaluated children’s rights as part of a pluralist patchwork of obligations. While it is tempting to examine children’s rights as a concern that transcends all others, in reality, states’ obligations to children compete among many others. The book thereby encourages scholars, activists, lawmakers and indeed courts, to desist from the temptation of employing rights as rhetoric and instead to engage in a genuine rights-driven process and analysis.

Children’s rights are not a panacea, nor should they be. They should not be used to avoid balancing interests and pursuing coherent reasoning. Instead, greater regard for children’s rights requires engagement with the impact of regulation on children, which has long been overshadowed by market considerations. This mandates that the state engages with rights when draft ing regulations. This could serve to rebalance the current state of global governance whereby ‘the norms of global trade law, like those of EU trade law, enjoy a privileged legal status – they are the standard, the rule against which health protection must be accepted as a permissible exception’.

SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS

Chapter 2 described existing evidence found in systematic reviews and other literature on food marketing and evaluated the extent to which unhealthy food marketing interferes with children’s rights. Research shows that marketing impacts children’s health, although it remains difficult to isolate causal factors and prove long-term effects. Companies target children through advertising designed to appeal to them and advertising in spaces designed for children. The majority of food advertising does not promote nutritionally dense food.

Several techniques were identified as being of concern as they blur the boundaries between advertising and programming, such as use of children’s characters and personalities, and advergames. These techniques can be exploitative, tap into emotions, encourage frequent consumption, and are difficult for children to identify.