The OMA National Health and Wellbeing Policy
The OMA National Health and Wellbeing Policy restricts the advertising of occasional food and drink products on Out of Home signs within a 150 metre sightline of a school. The Policy aims to meet community expectations and support government efforts to tackle overweight and obesity in Australia.
The Policy was launched on 24 February 2020 and came into effect from 1 July 2020.
Why the National Health and Wellbeing Policy?
A world first
The Outdoor industry is proud to take a leadership position with the first industry backed, National Health and Wellbeing Policy for Outdoor advertising.
Consultative & collaborative
The Outdoor industry has worked with industry, food groups, advertisers, health promotion experts and government to devise the Policy.
Evidence-based
The Outdoor industry has undertaken extensive research on Australian and international best practice to formulate the Policy.
Place-based policy
The National Health and Wellbeing Policy is highly targeted and will help to address health inequalities.
Emphasis on education
The Outdoor industry will partner with government to run targeted educational campaigns supporting healthy diets and lifestyle choices.
Transparent monitoring
The Outdoor industry will monitor the implementation and effects of the Policy and share the results with government annually.
Place-based policy
The Outdoor Media Association has over ten years’ experience implementing and monitoring a place-based policy. The MOVE School Mapping Tool* accurately maps the locations and boundaries of primary and secondary schools in capital cities across Australia.
The OMA Placement Policy ensures that alcohol, gambling and adult products are not advertised within a 150 metre sightline of a primary or secondary school in Australia.
MOVE has incorporated school boundary data – using PSMA data – and created 150 metre zones around each school boundary to identify which sites are at risk of breaching if restricted products are advertised. A bonus of the MOVE system is that key locations can be targeted for the running of positive education and health campaigns. This means that locations facing serious health inequities can be targeted to ensure culturally-relevant and sensitive campaigns.
*MOVE is a web-based interactive tool for media buyers, advertisers and outdoor media operators. It is Australia’s first national industry-wide audience measurement system for Out of Home media. Read more here.
Update to the National Health and Wellbeing Policy
When it was launched in 2020, the OMA policy was a world-first, nationally consistent restriction on the placement of occasional food and drink advertising around schools. In November 2021, the Australian Association of National Advertisers’ new Food and Beverages Code (AANA Code) came into effect. The AANA Code restricts the content and placement of advertisements for occasional food and drink, particularly in relation to advertising targeting children. The AANA Code uses the FSANZ threshold as its test for occasional food and drink. In order to keep the self-regulatory scheme as robust as possible, and to make compliance with both the OMA Policy and the AANA Code easier for advertisers and OMA members, from 1 January 2022, the OMA transitioned to the use of the FSANZ threshold test in its own policy.
If you are a member of the Outdoor Media Association, please click here for further details.