Between voluntary agreement and legislation: The delicate case of marketing and advertising of food and beverages to children

Voluntary agreements and self-imposed standards are broadly applied to restrict the
influence food advertising exerts on children’s food choices – yet their effects are
unknown. The current project will therefore investigate whether and, if yes, how the
Danish Code for Responsible Food Marketing Communication towards Children
(hereafter: CODE) – with its dependence on a supportive institutional environment and
acceptance of as well as dynamics between involved key stakeholders like consumers,
political actors and firms – contributes to fighting the obesity pandemic.Thus, we
explore within this article what information about the process of implementing the
CODE as well as about the evolved dynamics between key stakeholders is already
available. Here, the recently published report of the PolMark project sheds light on
the dynamics between the key stakeholders in relation to the current Danish
regulation. Furthermore, the article’s aim is to identify existing research gaps that
have to be closed to answer the project’s overarching question