They've done it at last....
there has been rumour about a potential ban of junk food advertising during children's television programs for some time, but at last it has happened, and I have to say this is wonderful news.
The ban doesn't apply to shows before a certain time or anything like that, but to shows that have a "particular appeal" to children under the age of 16 (ie more than 20% of the audience are likely to be under 16). This is better than had been expected, but not as good as health campaigners were wanting. It does mean that many of the teenage "soaps" and programs such as "X Factor" will be affected.
The TV channels and some advertisers are complaining - the first lose money and the 2nd lose a channel to reach their target market:
"Ofcom estimates that the restrictions will affect only 0.7% of the ad revenues of terrestrial broadcasters such as ITV, GMTV, Channel 4 and Channel Five.
Cable and satellite channels will see a loss of around 8.8% of total ad revenues.
However, the hardest hit will be dedicated children's channels, such as Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, which will see an estimated 15% hit in ad revenues."
Although this is said to be a small percentage for channels such as ITV, it does put further risk on the shows that are on ITV, putting more pressure on the BBC to produce quality children's TV rather than everyone just importing it from the US, where, from what I have seen, children seem to "grow up" a lot quicker than here in the UK.
As Channel 5 Chief Exec has said
"However, these restrictions will deny us substantial revenue and make the economics of producing children's programmes a lot more difficult in the future.
"The long-term future of UK-produced children's programming outside the BBC is bleak."
I'm all for a reduction in exposure that children have to "junk" food and the image that much of this has. It has to have some impact if eating a certain food isn't seen to be "trendy" because they don't see it on TV all of the time. Personally, I think that there should be a more global ban as it's the parents that actually buy the junk. I also think that there should be clearer labelling on food, but that's another story.
The main problem I can see is that the ban wont be complete until 2008,.... the restrictions are being phased in between now and then.
I still think "good on Disney" for saying that they will no longer endorse "junk" foods anywhere in the world, only healthy ones. Yes, they will still allow birthday cakes to be made, and a few other season specific things, but not general products such as biscuits, sweets, backing of McDonalds etc.
Reply to this article / Report this article
Replying to this comment:
The junk food advertising saga continues.
"Consumer watchdog Which? has launched a new campaign to oust cartoon characters from unhealthy snack advertising, claiming that superheros are being exploited to encourage kids to clamour for foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt.
Which? has launched the campaign following letters sent out to 11 UK companies that licence cartoon characters and five food companies that use their own cartoon characters on foods, in which they asked whether they have specific policies on how characters can be used to promote foods to children.
"Overall most companies that use, own and license the cartoons used on foods high in fat, sugar and salt are still failing to acknowledge the need for effective action," said which"
I have to say that i agree - kids are naturally going to want the version that has their favourite character associated with it, therefore making shopping even more stressful for parents. I'm lucky that in many cases the "junk" contains dairy, which my son can't have, so it's a clear "no, you can't eat that, it'll make you ill" but for parents who have to explain it's not healthy, then it's constant arguments when shopping.
"The campaign, which aims to get parents and other consumers involved through an online 'wall of shame' where they can post details of offending ads, comes less than three months after the introduction of the first wave of curbs on television advertising of high fat, sugar and salt (HFSS ) products around programming aimed at children. "
Reply to this comment