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Watching Mexican TV channels like Televisa and TVAzteca, you'll notice that many TV commercials have captions at the bottom of the screen with what appear to read as cautionary messages. Snack commercials, for example, often have captions like "Come bien y haz ejercicio" (eat well and exercise) or "Llenate de energia" (fill yourself with energy). Makeup commercials often have messages like "Salud es belleza" (health is beauty). Beer commercials often come tagged with the phrase Todo con medida (everything in moderation). However, other commercials don't seem to have any captions at all.

Why do these messages appear in these commercials? Are they mandated by Mexican law? What is the motivation for these messages? Why do they appear on some commercials, but not all?

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    "Makeup commercials often have messages like "Salud es belleza" (health is beauty)." I've never before seen anything that made me think "Wow! I'd love to live in Mexico" .. until that very statement. All power to them. :)
    – Andrew Thompson
    Jan 1, 2014 at 7:20
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    If this is true, kudos to Mexico!
    – Meat Trademark
    Jan 1, 2014 at 11:07
  • I think that "Come bien y haz ejercicio" are by law. Other ones, not really. In French, ads for foods have to show the same kind of sentence.
    – Larme
    Jan 1, 2014 at 22:48

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Regulations in Mexico require warning messages in alcohol and tobacco advertising. Health promotion messages are required in ads of food and nonalcoholic beverages. For tv commercials, regulation establishes font type and minimum size, and the fraction of the ad duration that the caption should appear on screen. The purpose of these messages is to protect consumers, specially children.

Regulation - spanish

An article about advertising to children - english

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