Advertising & marketing

Our approach

We are committed to responsible marketing and have four clearly defined principles that guide our communications:

• We are committed to building trust through responsible practices and through transparent communication – both directly to consumers and indirectly through other key stakeholders and thought-leaders.
• It is our responsibility to ensure that our products are safe and that we provide clear information on their use and any risks that are associated with their use.
• We fully support a consumer's right to know what is in our products and will be transparent in terms of ingredients, nutrition values and the health and beauty properties of our products.
• We will use a combination of channels, which includes product labels, websites, Careline phone numbers and/or consumer leaflets to communicate openly with our consumers.

Responsible marketing

As a leading global consumer goods company, we promote the benefits of our products using many different channels of brand communication. Advertising can be a powerful force for behaviour change.

Advertising helps inform people about the benefits of our products and innovations. It is also a way for us to engage with consumers on issues that matter to them. For example, Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty challenges current stereotypes about beauty. Omo/Persil's 'Dirt is good' campaign promotes getting dirty as a natural and positive part of growing up for children – all part of their learning and development.

At the same time, we recognise the influence of marketing and advertising on consumers and take our responsibilities seriously. This means ensuring that all claims we make have a sound scientific basis and that all such communication passes the baseline test of being 'legal, decent and honest'.

Advertising & Promotions (2004-2010)

International self-regulatory codes

We support the development of international self-regulatory codes for all marketing and advertising and apply these across our business.

Working through our industry trade bodies, such as the World Federation of Advertisers and the International Chamber of Commerce, we have supported the development of general principles in this area and their integration into advertising and marketing self-regulatory codes and systems around the world.

Unilever Global Principles for Responsible Food & Beverage Marketing

In 2003, we were one of the first companies to apply our own principles to the marketing and advertising of all our food and beverage products. These global Food and Beverage Marketing Principles were rolled out by our Marketing Lawyers Network, our global network of marketing legal experts, in collaboration with our marketing teams. The Principles have been reviewed regularly since 2003 and updates published, the latest being in December 2010 (see below for more).

The Principles require, for example, that our marketing messages are appropriate in the light of obesity issues (such as avoiding the depiction of over-sized portions) and that our marketing materials exclude anything that undermines the promotion of healthy, balanced diets and healthy, active lifestyles, or misrepresents snacks as meals.

Marketing foods & beverages to children

The Principles also contain additional requirements for marketing foods and beverages directed at children. They require that our marketing practices:

• do not convey misleading messages
• do not undermine parental influence
• do not encourage 'pester power'
• do not suggest a time / sense of urgency or a price minimisation pressure
• do not exploit a child’s imagination or inexperience
• do not encourage unhealthy dietary habits
• do not blur the boundary between programme or editorial content and commercial promotion.

In 2005, we committed to voluntarily restrict all paid marketing communications directed primarily at children under the age of six years. This measure was applied because of increasing evidence showing that children below six years do not have the cognitive ability to distinguish between advertising/marketing and programming.

In 2007, we further extended this commitment to restrict marketing to children between the ages of six and 11 for all products except those that meet Unilever’s Nutrition Criteria.

In December 2010, the Principles were updated to remove exemptions on the use of cartoon characters and celebrities as applied to packaging, labelling and point-of-sale materials.

See Unilever Global Principles for Responsible Food and Beverage Marketing to read the latest update.

Voluntary industry initiatives on responsible marketing ('Pledge Programmes')

In addition to our Global Principles work, since 2008 Unilever has played a major role in promoting industry-wide voluntary initiatives to advocate responsible marketing of foods and beverages to children below 12 years of age. These initiatives, called 'Pledge Programmes', have now been launched in many countries/regions across the world. As of December 2010, 15 'Pledge Programmes' have been implemented in 13 markets, namely the EU, Australia, the US, Canada, Thailand, South Africa, Brazil, Russia, India, Mexico, Gulf States (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE), Turkey and Switzerland. 

In 2009, with other member companies of the International Food and Beverage Alliance (IFBA), we made a series of commitments to the World Health Organization (WHO), including responsible advertising to children. IFBA members jointly commissioned Accenture to audit adherence to our marketing principles. In 2009, the audit covered 11 countries and found near 100% compliance, with just four non-compliant advertisements among the participating companies. A further audit will be undertaken in 2011 and its findings also communicated.

Promoting healthy body images

There is much debate around the fashion and marketing industries' portrayal of unrealistic images of beauty through media and advertising.

In 2007, Unilever adopted a global guideline to prevent the use of 'size zero' models or actors in its advertising to ensure that our advertising does not promote 'unhealthy' slimness. All brand directors and agencies are expected to use models and actors with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of between 18.5 and 25 as a guideline. This is in line with United Nations' guidance on what level of BMI can be considered healthy.

In 2004, Dove launched its Campaign for Real Beauty, featuring women of all shapes and sizes. Interestingly, our Dove 'real women' models may have a BMI typically in the range of 25 to 30, which is the upper level associated with good health.

In 2007, Dove's short film 'Evolution' was one of the most downloaded clips on YouTube. The video shows a woman being transformed through make-up, lighting and airbrushing. A second Dove film, called 'Onslaught', showed a young girl being bombarded by advertising campaigns portraying unrealistic images of beauty. Both videos go on to promote self-esteem workshops.

In recognition of our work in this area, in May 2008, Unilever was presented with the AED Corporate Leadership Award by the Academy for Eating Disorders. The award recognised our responsible marketing campaign in advancing the awareness and treatment of eating disorders.

New internet marketing guidelines

Online advertising and communication is a growing trend. With people everywhere being able to access online material, our internet marketing guidelines were published internally in 2008 to ensure that campaigns aimed at a particular market are sensitive to cultural differences in other parts of the world.