Advertisers Charged With Endangering Children’s Health
Food marketers have again come under fire after a damning report from the Food Commission claimed that the £15 billion spent globally on advertising junk food to children is putting their health at risk.
The report claims that for every 70p spent by the World Heath Organisation on preventing the diseases caused by junk food, the advertising industry spends more than £300 promoting them. It also puts the food industry’s global marketing budget at £24.6 billion, a figure which is greater than the gross domestic product of 70% of the world’s nations.
The Food Commission claims that the West is in the process of marketing and advertising its high calorie and nutritionally defunct foods to less-industrialised countries such as Russia, India and China. The influx of Western products, backed up by the mammoth might of global advertising has created a rising tide of diet related diseases.
Kath Dalmeny, co-author of the Food Commission report, commented: “Junk food and sugary drinks are supported by enormous advertising budgets that dwarf any attempt to educate children about healthy diets. Junk food advertisers know that children are especially susceptible to marketing messages. They target children as young as two years old with free toys, cartoon characters, gimmicky packaging and interactive websites to ensure that children pester their parents for the products.”
The findings will place further pressure on the Government to move to curtail the advertising of junk food to children and follows warnings that childhood obesity in the UK is reaching “epidemic levels” (see Advertisers To Block Ban On Advertising Food To Children).
Labour MP, Debra Shipley, recently tabled a Private Members Bill to ban food advertising to children, which gained the backing of a cross-party alliance of MPs, consumer groups and health advisors. The Bill ran out of time, but is expected to be proposed in the next parliamentary session (see Set Back For Plans To Ban Food Advertising To Children).
Advertising groups have inevitably lobbied against any moves to ban ads aimed at children, in much the same way they lobbied against the ban on cigarette advertising and current proposals to ban the advertising of alcohol (see Call For Ban On Alcohol Advertising Meets Stiff Opposition).
Health groups and consumer activists have criticised the advertising industry for encouraging damaging habits amongst children, arguing they are being targeted by manufacturers as cynically as drug dealers target addicts.
Despite this pressure, the Government looks unwilling to budge on this issue with Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, claiming that the overall quality of children’s programming would fall as a result of decreasing ad revenues.
However, progress on the issue may be made from an unlikely source, leading investment bank JP Morgan and UBS Warburg have warned companies such as McDonalds that their share prices are at risk as their profits rely on selling fatty and sugary foods, which are likely to be the subject of future regulations.
The Food Commission recently criticised celebrities including David Beckham and Gary Lineker for advertising fast-food, confectionery and soft drinks (see Footballers Criticised For Junk Food Ads).
DCMS: 020 7211 6200 www.dcms.gov.uk
Food Commission: www.foodcomm.org.uk
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