On December 11th, Decree No. 1 of the Ministry of Health (herein, the "Decree") was published on the Official Gazette. The Decree sets forth the graphic characteristics of the message for the promotion of healthy life habits that must be included in the advertisement of foodstuff products established in Article 5 of Law No. 20,606 –those that qualify as "High in" one or more critical nutrients– made through mass communication.

The Decree provides that advertisement of foodstuff products that qualify as "high in" energy, saturated fats, sodium and/or total sugars, in accordance to Article 120 bis of the Chilean Sanitary Food Regulation, which is made through mass communication media, must contain the message: "Prefiera Alimentos con menos sellos de advertencia" ("Prefer foods with less warning seals") followed by the phrase "Ministerio de Salud, Gobierno de Chile" ("Ministry of Health, Government of Chile") –herein, the "Message"

In connection with the aforementioned obligation, the Decree sets forth that the following will be considered as mass communication media: television, radio, press, media placed in public roads and the Internet.

The general characteristics of the Message, applicable to all media, are the following:

  • It shall be presented on a black stripe with the logo of the Ministry of Health and the text of the Message.
  • The Font used for the logo and its complement is gobCL Bold, and the font for the Message will be Arial Bold.

Additionally, the Decree provides the particular characteristics of the Message for each of the aforementioned mass communication media.

In this sense, it is worth mentioning that within the media "Internet", the Decree expressly regulated ads on Facebook and Twitter, on to which a special rule is established in connection to the graphic characteristics of the Message.

Non-compliance with the regulations contained in the Decree shall be sanctioned in accordance to Book X of the Chilean Sanitary Code.

The Decree shall enter into force six months after its publication in the Official Gazette; this is, in June 11th, 2018.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.