This document discusses the development of the CLICK tool to monitor and assess children's exposure to digital marketing of unhealthy products. It proposes establishing a standardized methodology using panel-based or automated methods to research exposure. The tool would help clarify government mandates to regulate digital marketing and set technical standards. It also outlines mapping marketing ecosystems, using screen capture software to understand techniques like influencers, and creating public education materials from the research data. The goal is to advocate for policy changes to protect children from targeted digital marketing across borders.

1. Monitoring and restricting digital marketing of
unhealthy products to children and
adolescents : CLICK tool
Dr. Kremlin Wickramasinghe MBBS MSc DPhil
WHO European Office for Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases

3. Regulation would provide
equal
protection to all children
regardless of
socioeconomic group
and ensure equal
responsibility by large,
regional, multinational
and small local producers
and retailers.

4. Aligned with priority policies contained in regional policy frameworks
Priority policy options
Strong controls on marketing, incl. but not limited to TV advertising
Price policies applied to foods and drinks
Consumer-friendly front of pack labelling
Reformulation, calorie reduction, smaller portions

5. • State regulation
• Comprehensive
• Protect all children, not just under-12s
• Focus on ‘what children see’, not ‘only
targeted’
• Address brand equity/licensed
characters & brand marketing
• Adopt effective Nutrient Profiling
systems
• Cross-border marketing
• Effective monitoring

6. 6
Expert meeting on monitoring of digital marketing of unhealthy products to children and adolescents
Moscow, June 2018.

7. 7
Launch: London, UK
13 March 2019

8. 8
Aims
Research:
Establish a panel-based or
automated e-research
methodology that can be
implemented in a standard way
Monitor:
Develop the CLICK
tool to assess the
extent of children’s
actual exposure to
digital marketing
Prevent.
Set out the prerequisites
for technical standards
Implement:
Clarify the
mandate for
governments to put
in place national
policy frameworks

9. 9
Rapid growth in
the digital
advertising
market

10. 10
In recent years there has been a significant
global shift towards automated buying and
selling of targeted advertising impressions,
known as the “programmatic” system of
advertising
“programmatic” system of advertising

11. 11
This means that neither the brand, nor the media
agency, nor the publisher can say with certainty which
advertisements have been served to whom
Programmatic
ecosystem and the
bidding process is
complex…

12. 12
Voluntary regulation ?
The current ecosystem, would prevent companies making beneficial
changes, even if they wanted

13. 13

14. 14
Map the global, regional and national digital marketing ecosystem and children’s website/app usage
Example:
The programmatic ecosystem in the United Kingdom

15. 15
• Website and brand social media sweep
• Information from advertising agencies
• Data mining approaches - To scan social media
platform

16. An alcohol brand on Twitter – Across Europe
during the FIFA World Cup

17. 17

18. 18
Use real-time screen capture software to assess what children actually sees online, in
order to better understand wider marketing techniques, including user-generated
content and product placement

19. 19
A slide from
Emma Boyland,
University of
Liverpool
Social media influencers

20. 20
Create user-friendly materials from
the research data and develop
partnerships with:
• young people
• parents,
• policy-makers and
• civil society,
to advocate change, raise awareness
and influence policy.

21. 21
Data on digital marketing
Governments can request companies to provide data
on advertising practices on a “scheduled basis”.
Lessons learnt from Canada on tobacco advertising
data

22. 22
Beyond Monitoring
1. Age verification of
online users
2. Tagging of
marketing
campaigns
3. Regulation

23. 23
GDPR and current status
• Consent easier to gain within walled gardens
• Is creating a monopoly ?
• Regulatory approaches

24. 24
• This is a global problem, a global ecosystem, local solutions won’t work
• You as a region can lead the way to develop a momentum to address this issue!
• Other countries are available and ready to support.

25. 25
Acknowledgements
• Expert meeting: Imaeva Asiia, Luke Biggins,
Emma Boyland, Cynthia Callard, Andrei Demin,
Irina Efimenko, Mark Grindle, Gerard Hastings,
Tobin Ireland, Emmi Kauppila, Bridget Kelly,
Luboš Kukliš , Agnes Nairn, Marguerite Nyhan,
Rachel O’Connell, Sandra Radoš Krnel, Anneli
Sammel, Irina Svyato, Mimi Tatlow-Golden and
James Williams.
• Additional reviewers including Nathan
Critchlow, Ismo Tuominen, Nick Sheron, Clive
Henn, Rachel Manners.
• The rapporteur of
the expert meeting,
Katy Cooper
• All the contributors
from the World
Health Organization

26. THANK YOU
wickramasinghek@who.int @KremlinKW