Written question asked by Baroness Gibson of Market Rasen (Labour), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Baroness Thornton (Labour) on Wednesday, 24 March 2010.

Media: Women's Magazines

Question: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to work with women's magazines to inform women about healthy eating and keeping to a healthy weight.

Answer: The department's Change4Life campaign began last year with a focus on families with children aged 5-11. In February this year, the campaign was extended to cover adults in the 45-64 age group. The Change4Life marketing strategy is to use the most effective and relevant communication channels to target our audiences. While the marketing strategy for the adults campaign does not include advertisements in women's magazines, we do target them via public relations to gain editorial content and media partnerships. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has also taken a number of steps to work with women's magazines. These magazines have been a key media channel in all the agency's healthier eating related advertising campaigns. The FSA has placed both advertisements and advertorials covering a wide range of healthier eating topics such as salt, saturated fat, labelling, cooking/recipes and teen healthy eating. Women's magazines are also a key target for the agency's public relations activity on a wide range of diet and health issues.

Secondary information