POSITIVE COMMUNICATION: Nestlé sponsors the Healthy Thai Kids programme, reaching 5000 primary schools with nutrition education. Above the children learn the importance of a balanced diet and discover, in an interactive way, how food is digested.
Responsible advertising to children has always been part of Nestlé's
Consumer Communication Principles (pdf, 123 kb).
They are aimed at encouraging moderation, healthy dietary habits and physical activity without undermining the authority of parents or creating unrealistic expectations of popularity or success. They also ensure that we do not create difficulty in distinguishing real from imaginary or create a sense of urgency.
Updates to the Nestlé Consumer Communication Principles
In light of the rising concerns about child obesity, Nestlé strengthened its Principles in July 2007 by adding two important provisions:
- no advertising or marketing activity is to be directed at children under 6 years
- advertising for children from 6 to 12 years must be restricted to products with a nutritional profile that helps children achieve a healthy balanced diet, including clear limits for such ingredients as sugar, salt and fat.
These will be fully implemented in all Nestlé markets globally by the end of 2008.
Nestlé has developed a set of "Implementation Guidelines" and a monitoring system to ensure compliance with the above.
Pledges and Initiatives
Additionally, Nestlé participates in industry initiatives aimed at furthering responsible advertising. These include the pledges discussed below and a Europe-wide initiative, started in 2005, which assesses companies’ compliance with industry-wide Codes of Conduct for Food and Beverages Marketing Communications. This has provided a useful tool for Nestlé to receive feedback on its advertising and maintain high standards of compliance.
There are also initiatives taking place at a local level. In December 2007, Nestlé joined a voluntary responsible advertising initiative, started by the major players in the food and beverage industry in the EU (European Union), to address communications to children below 12 years of age. The aim is to support and promote good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle. The industry pledge, to be fully implemented by the end of 2008, will be subject to independent compliance monitoring. The pledge will cover TV, print and internet advertising. The voluntary measures, made by the participating food and beverage companies, are a commitment to the Commission’s Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health and are in support of parental efforts to promote healthy lifestyles. The individual company commitments will be published on the EU pledge website 
in November 2008.
In addition to signing the EU pledge Nestlé are also signatories of the Canadian, Thai, Australian and the US food and beverage advertising initiatives.
Nestlé’s commitment and the World Health Organization
In May 2008 Paul Bulcke, Nestlé CEO, signed a letter to the World Health Organization, with other members of the food and beverage industry that demonstrated a unified commitment to actively pursue initiatives in five key areas, on a global basis, to promote a healthy diet, physical activity and health. These areas included product composition, nutritional information to consumers and guidelines on marketing and advertising to children. Further details can be found in the letter to Dr Chan, World Health Organization (pdf, 106 kb).
The Nestlé Nutritional Profiling System
Nestlé’s worldwide strategy is to offer products that meet consumer taste preference and provide nutritional value. Nestlé has established a rigorous system to assess the nutrient profile of its products called the Nestlé Nutritional Profiling System. Read the summary (pdf, 141 kb) or the full text (pdf, 785 kb).