Children & Young People 3–17 Years Dietary Guidelines

ANZA Submission on Marketing Recommendations

The Association of New Zealand Advertisers (ANZA) has urged the Ministry of Health to base its proposed Children & Young People 3–17 Years Dietary Guidelines on sound, contemporary evidence rather than ideology. In our submission, ANZA challenges the draft’s disproportionate focus on advertising and the use of dated research that fails to reflect today’s robust regulatory settings. New Zealand’s Advertising Standards Authority already enforces some of the world’s toughest rules, prohibiting advertising of occasional food and beverage products to under-16s and requiring strict media placement controls. We caution that overstating the role of marketing risks misdirecting public policy away from the real drivers of poor nutrition — affordability, access, education, and community wellbeing — where meaningful progress can be made.