ACTIVISTS TARGET WINTER FUN
Health group protests ads for Tim Hortons
After successfully taking on Ronald McDonald and Lucky the Leprechaun, a Quebec anti-obesity group has set its sights on Tim Hortons and its sponsorship of children’s sports.
In a complaint filed Friday with Quebec’s consumer protection agency, the Coalition Poids accuses Tim Hortons of violating a Quebec law that prohibits advertising aimed at children.
The complaint stems from the doughnut-maker’s sponsorship of an outdoor ball-hockey attraction at Montreal’s Fête des Neiges, a family-oriented winter festival. In photos, the event seems innocuous, healthy even. Rosy-cheeked children chase a ball around the snow-packed surface. But Corinne Voyer, the director of Coalition Poids, said the ubiquitous Tim Hortons and Timbits logos — on banners, on rink boards and on the jerseys worn by the young players — is advertising that targets children.
“I have no problem with Tim Hortons encouraging kids to play outside, but when they use aggressive advertising to place their products, that’s where I have an ethical problem,” Voyer said. She said research shows that diet plays a bigger role in obesity than physical exercise.
Noting that the company also sponsors Timbits hockey, soccer and skiing in Quebec, she said the Fête des Neiges complaint is the tip of the iceberg. “We have not complained yet on those issues, but it is coming,” she said. “We are compiling a file.”
Quebec is the only jurisdiction in North America to ban advertising aimed at children under 13 years of age. Since a 2009 conviction of Saputo Inc., maker of Vachon snacks, for using a cartoon gorilla to peddle cakes to preschoolers, Quebec has become more active in enforcing the law.
McDonald’s was fined $12,000 for a TV ad promoting Chicken McNuggets, Burger King was fined $12,000 in relation to the toys included in its children’s meals and General Mills, makers of Lucky Charms cereal, was fined $2,000 for online games featuring the cereal’s leprechaun character.
Last November, CocaCola pleaded guilty and was fined $27,000 for a Fanta Zone water park it sponsored in the La Ronde amusement park, where the Fanta logo was prominently displayed and the games were orange.
Quebec’s law withstood a 1989 test before the Supreme Court of Canada, when Irwin Toy challenged it as limiting free expression. The court ruled that children are not as equipped as adults to evaluate advertising. “The legislature reasonably concluded that advertisers should not be able to capitalize upon children’s credulity,” the court wrote.
A spokeswoman for Tim Hortons did not respond to messages seeking comment Tuesday.
ADVERTISERS SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO CAPITALIZE UPON CHILDREN’S CREDULITY.
Geneviève Boyer, a spokeswoman for Société parc Jean-Drapeau, which stages the Fête des Neiges, said no changes are planned to the Tim Hortons zone during the event’s final weekend.
“The advertising of Tim Hortons on the site currently is not presented in a way to be attractive to children,” she said. Even if children develop a Timbits craving after their ball hockey game, the only product Tim Hortons is selling on site is coffee, she said.
The Tim Hortons complaint is part of a multipronged offensive by Coalition Poids. It also filed a complaint Monday against the dairy company Natrel for handing our free chocolate milk to children at Quebec City’s winter carnival. The giveaway was tied to Natrel’s sponsorship of a popular children’s movie, La Guerre des Tuques 3D.
On Tuesday, Coalition Poids joined other health organizations in calling on the Quebec government to require warning labels on sugared drinks. Modelled after the labels on cigarette packages, the proposed warning would advise consumers that sugared drinks contribute to obesity, diabetes and tooth decay. The groups want Quebec to require the labels on energy drinks, soft drink, sport drinks, iced tea and vitamin water.