The politics of voluntary self-regulation: insights from the development and promotion of the Australian Beverages Council's Commitment

Abstract

Objective: To analyse the evolution of the soft drink industry's use of self-regulation as a response to obesity and examine the motivations driving its development and the strategies used to promote it to policy makers.

Design: We used a data set of industry documents published by the Australian Beverages Council (ABC) between 1998 and 2016. We analysed how the ABC voiced its political motivations about self-regulation and what internal nutrition policies it developed prior to its public launch of self-regulation. We also analysed two promotional strategies: funding research and writing policy submissions.

Setting: Australia.

Results: Between 1998 and 2006, the ABC shifted from a defensive strategy that denied the role of its products in obesity to more conciliatory strategy that emphasised the role of the soft drink industry in solutions to obesity. The ABC deliberately timed the launch of its self-regulation to coincide with an international public health congress. Following its launch, the ABC funded research demonstrating the efficacy of self-regulation and wrote submissions to government nutrition policies arguing that further regulation was unnecessary.

Conclusions: The soft drink industry uses self-regulation to bolster its reputation and influence nutrition policy. Strategic timing plays a key role in the political influence of self-regulation.

Keywords: Corporate political activity; Nutrition policy; Obesity; Self-regulation; Soft drink industry.

Fig. 1

The Australian Beverage Council’s nutrition and obesity policies and strategies, 1998–2009

Fig. 2

Selections from the Australian Beverage Council’s ‘Liquids for Living’ brochure

Fig. 3

Timeline of launches of corporate self-regulation (ABC, Australian Beverages Council; AFGC, Australian Food and Grocery Council; IFBA, International Food and Beverage Alliance; ICBA, International Council of Beverages Association; GMA, Grocery Manufacturers Association; FMI, Food Marketing Institute)