Issued on: 03 October 2023
Deadline: 20 December 2023
The WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) is seeking experts to serve as members on the Technical Advisory Group on brand marketing and restricting its use in the marketing of unhealthy foods to children (further called TAG on brand marketing or TAG-BM for ease). This call for experts provides information about the TAG-BM, the expert profiles being sought, how to express interest and the selection process.
Background
The TAG-BM will serve as an advisory body to the WHO Regional Office for Europe on scientific and technical issues related to strategies, activities, monitoring processes and evidence gathering in the field of brand marketing related to unhealthy products.
The World Health Assembly first called for recommendations on marketing of foods and nonalcoholic beverages to children and endorsed the Set of recommendations on the marketing of foods and nonalcoholic beverages to children in 2010.
Despite existing political commitments and policies, the latest evidence shows that children and adolescents are still regularly exposed to all kinds of marketing of many unhealthy products, including foods high in saturated fat, salt and sugar (HFSS), trans-fatty acids, alcohol, and tobacco and (novel) nicotine delivery products. As time spent online shifts increasingly to social media and mobile devices, where personalized and targeted advertising predominates, this exposure is likely to increase, and along with it, noncommunicable disease risk.
The response by government and public health to this threat to children's well-being is currently focused on the restriction of specific products. Due to rapid changes in the digital and programmatic marketing strategies, this is no longer sufficient. An emerging method of marketing is brand marketing: the promotion of a company's brand rather than a particular product. Evidence shows that young children can already connect brand logos, products and brand-typical characters such as cartoon characters associated with the brand. By being imbued with desirable characteristics, companies obtain children's and adolescents' attention, loyalty and identification with their brands early on in their lives.
Tools and support are urgently needed to facilitate monitoring and implementation of WHO recommendations in online settings considering all kinds of marketing, including brand marketing, as marketing of unhealthy products to children remains a severe public health challenge.
The TAG-BM will support the collection of relevant evidence, in order to identify and describe current and potential future approaches for monitoring and restricting brand marketing of companies producing products that increase the risk of noncommunicable diseases. Additionally, the TAG-BM will explore the possibility of developing mechanisms on how to categorize brands as permitted or not permitted to be advertised to children, based on the nutritional values of their products.
The focus of the TAG-BM will be the brands of food and beverage companies. However, WHO also wants to include experiences and learnings from brand marketing of alcohol and/or tobacco or (novel) nicotine delivery products. Therefore, WHO invites all experts who have experience in brand marketing (restrictions) for any such products that might be unhealthy for children.
Functions of the TAG-BM
In its capacity as an advisory body to WHO/Europe, the TAG-BM shall have the following functions.
- To review and summarize current global evidence on the health impact of brand marketing related to unhealthy products including HFSS foods and those containing trans-fatty acids, and alcohol and tobacco or (novel) nicotine delivery products, with a specific focus on children and adolescents.
- To provide independent evaluation of the scientific, technical and strategic aspects of brand marketing restrictions, particularly with a focus on the best available evidence and relevant research in the area of restricting harmful marketing to children.
- To identify and describe current and potential future approaches for monitoring and restriction of brand marketing, their associated regulatory frameworks, their implementation and their monitoring and compliance, including economic and legal aspects.
- To advise on the development of methodologies that will identify gaps in evidence and lead to priority-setting for future research topics related to the brand marketing of unhealthy products. This should include data collection procedures, analyses and interpretation, supporting the advancement of the international research agenda on brand marketing in all settings.
- To provide input to policy briefs, fact sheets and to provide technical support for Member States on the monitoring and restriction of brand marketing related to unhealthy products.
- To advise on, and advocate for, stronger policies in this area.
Operations of the TAG-BM
The TAG-BM will normally meet once each year. However, the WHO/Europe is likely to convene additional meetings as and when needed, particularly during the first years of the TAG's existence. Meetings may be held in person (at the WHO Regional Office for Europe in Copenhagen or another location, as determined by WHO) or virtually using online meeting options. In addition, the advice and feedback of the TAG-BM members may be sought over email.
- Members will be appointed to service for a period of 2 years and shall be eligible for reappointment.
- TAG-BM members are expected to attend meetings. If a member misses two consecutive meetings, WHO/Europe may end his/her appointment as a member of the TAG-BM.
- Active participation is expected from all TAG-BM members, including in online meetings and interaction over email. Members may be required to review strategic documents and meeting documentation in advance of meetings to provide their views for consideration by the TAG-BM.
- WHO/Europe shall determine the modes of communication of the TAG-BM.
- The working language of the TAG will be English.
Who can express interest?
The TAG-BM will be multidisciplinary, with members who have a range of technical knowledge, skills and experience relevant to the areas mentioned below. Approximately 15 experts will be selected.
WHO/Europe welcomes expressions of interest from researchers, public health experts, marketing experts, experts in information technology, health-care professionals, innovators, artists, designers, lawyers, journalists, psychologists, behavioural scientists and policy-makers representing a broad range of expertise relevant to brand marketing. Experience and expertise in the following areas are particularly desirable:
- proven experience in research methods to assess the impact of brand marketing, particularly to children and adolescents;
- health policy, particularly marketing regulations;
- health literacy, with a specific focus on marketing of unhealthy products;
- marketing, advertising and promotion of unhealthy products;
- attention and risk perception;
- social psychology and behavioural research;
- design and product policy design;
- behavioural and choice architecture;
- the use of artificial intelligence and digital tools to monitor marketing on digital media;
- international law, with a specific focus on international trade law and World Trade Organization agreements;
- subregional law, with a specific focus on European Union law;
- implementation and knowledge translation in decision-making processes; and
- the track record of development of mechanisms that categorize food and beverage brands as healthy and unhealthy.
Submitting your expression of interest
To register your interest in being considered for the TAG-BM, please submit the following documents by 20 December 2023, 23:59 (CEST) to Olga Zhiteneva (zhitenevao@who.int) and Kathrin Hetz (hetzk@who.int) using the subject line "Expression of interest for the WHO/Europe TAG-BM".
- A covering letter, indicating your motivation to apply and how you satisfy the selection criteria. Please note that, if selected, membership will be in a personal capacity. Please do not use the letterhead or other identification of your employer.
- Your curriculum vitae.
- A signed and completed Declaration of interests for WHO experts form, available at https:/covid.comesa.int/about/ethics/declarations-of-interest.
After submission, your expression of interest will be reviewed by WHO. Due to the expected high volume of interest, only selected individuals will be informed.
Important information about the selection processes and conditions of appointment
Members of WHO advisory groups (AGs) must be free of any real, potential or apparent conflicts of interest. To this end, applicants are required to complete the WHO Declaration of interests for WHO experts form, and selection as a member of an AG is, among other things, dependent on WHO determining that there exists no conflict of interests, or that any identified conflicts could be appropriately managed, in addition to WHO's evaluation of an applicant's experience, expertise and motivation and other criteria.
All AG members will serve in an individual expert capacity and shall not represent any governments, any commercial industries or entities, any research, academic or civil society organizations or any other bodies, entities, institutions or organizations. They are expected to fully comply with the WHO Code of Ethics and professional conduct (https:/covid.comesa.int/about/ethics/declarations-of-interest). AG members will be expected to sign and return a completed confidentiality agreement prior to the initial meeting.
At any point during the selection process, telephone interviews may be scheduled between an applicant and the WHO Secretariat to enable WHO to ask questions relating to applicants' experience and expertise, and/or to assess whether an applicant meets the criteria for membership of the relevant AG.
The selection of members of the AGs will be made by WHO at its sole discretion, taking into account the following (non-exclusive) criteria: relevant technical expertise; experience in international and country policy work; communication skills; and ability to work constructively with people from different cultural backgrounds and orientations .Selection of AG members will also take account of the need for diverse perspectives from different regions, particularly from low and middle-income countries and from gender balance.
If selected by WHO, proposed members will be sent an invitation letter and a Memorandum of Agreement. Appointment as a member of an AG will be subject to the proposed member returning to WHO a countersigned copy of these two documents.
WHO reserves the right to accept or reject any expression of interest, and to annul the open call process and reject all expressions of interest at any time without incurring any liability to the affected applicant or applicants, and without any obligation to inform the affected applicant or applicants of the grounds for WHO's action. WHO may also decide, at any time, not to proceed with the establishment of the AG, disband an existing TAG or modify the work of the AG.
WHO shall not in any way be obliged to reveal or discuss with any applicant how an expression of interest was assessed or to provide any other information relating to the evaluation/selection process or to state reasons for not choosing a member.
WHO may publish the names and a short biography of the selected individuals on the WHO website.
AG members will not be remunerated for their services in relation to the AG or otherwise. Travel and accommodation expenses of AG members to participate in AG meetings will be covered by WHO in accordance with its applicable policies, rules and procedures.
The appointment will be limited in time as indicated in the letter of appointment.
If you have any questions about this call for experts, please write to Olga Zhiteneva (zhitenevao@who.int) and Kathrin Hetz (hetzk@who.int).
Please do so well in advance of the deadline of 20 December 2023.
On 28 November 2023 the content of this article was updated to extend the deadline for applications from 20 November until 20 December 2023.
On 10 November 2023 the content of this article was updated to extend the deadline for applications from 6 until 20 November 2023.