The Parents’ Jury names Coles ‘One Direction’ campaign winner of the 2013 Shame Award

Risking the wrath of teenage girls throughout Australia, advocacy group The Parents’ Jury today named the Coles ‘One Direction‘ campaign as winner of its Shame award for Pester Power.

Tapping into the popularity of the boy band, the Coles competition encouraged shoppers to try to win tickets to an exclusive One Direction concert through purchasing a range of mostly junk food products.

The Parents’ Jury campaigns manager, Alice Pryor said parents are growing increasingly concerned about marketing campaigns that focus on children to drive brand loyalty and increase junk food sales.

Says Pryor: “The One Direction promotion was a missed opportunity for Coles. Instead of encouraging healthy eating, Coles partnered with brands such as Cadbury’s, Coca-Cola and Pringles to drive the competition.

“The Coles and One Direction promotion received the most nominations from our members and was unanimously voted the winner by our expert panel. They felt it epitomised the Pester Power award by appealing directly to children, encouraging them to persuade parents to buy unhealthy products for a desired return.”

The Fame and Shame Awards also delivered a smack in the face to KFC’s ‘Snack in the face‘ app, awarding it the Digital Ninja award. The app featured a game where players win vouchers which can be redeemed for a range of KFC snacks or can be passed onto friends through social media.

Mother of two, and Parents’ Jury member, Lucy Westerman is frustrated by the increasingly sophisticated and devious methods companies use to target children and young people.

Says Westerman: “KFC branding and ‘The Colonel’ are all over this app. It’s fun to play, colourful and rewarding with incentives for kids and their friends to visit their nearest KFC. Encouraging kids to snack is entirely the wrong message and this is an insidious way of keeping kids coming back to a junk food brand.”

Milo was awarded this year’s Smoke and Mirrors award for its ‘Official Drink of Play‘ TV commercial featuring popular TV personality Shelly Craft. Parents felt that the advertisement positioned the product in a way that made it appear healthier than it actually is. 

In some good news for Cricket Australia, the advocacy group applauded their ‘Play Cricket‘ TV commercial and awarded it the Parents’ Choice award. Parents found it a refreshing change to see sport promoted with no branded links to unhealthy products. The commercial promotes physical activity and shows that cricket can be played almost anywhere, encouraging families to get out and get active together.

In its ninth year, Fame and Shame remains as important as ever in highlighting the failure of industry self-regulation.

Says Pryor: “Considering 1 in 4 Australian children is obese or overweight, The Parents’ Jury believes unhealthy food promotion is an area that clearly needs to be controlled. Traditional marketing methods like TV and radio are now supplemented by the increasingly influential, and largely unregulated, marketing reach of digital and social media. It is vital that government, industry and parents work together to restrict levels of unhealthy food marketing to children and young people.”