Junk Food Advertising Ban

Reading article "Junk Food Advertising Ban" - Reply to this / 12 comment(s)
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.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/advertising/story/0... 

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Comments

1. Re: Junk Food Advertising Ban by ecosrights, 837 days ago

   Well now, not only is the ban affecting TV (it's now come into place) but the IPA (Institute of Practioners of Advertising) acknowledges that there has to be a transferral of the guidelines into online, print and outdoor media.
   
   ""The new CAP rules for non-broadcast advertising ensure that similar restrictions already introduced for broadcast advertising are applied across other media.
   
   "The rules go further than those for television commercials and television programme sponsorship, and apply to all food and drink products except for fresh fruit and vegetables." "
   
   This is all in a move to try to reduce the rate of obesity in UK children.
   
   I've also come across articles recently about how the US are waking up to the changes in the UK with the potential of introducing a similar ban.

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2. Re: Junk Food Advertising Ban by ecosrights, 837 days ago

   This article is very worrying - in the US, children see more adverts for sweets / candy than anything else, totally around 30% of all ads seen by children. That's worrying....
   
   But, how will the broadcasters cope if they can no longer screen these adverts?

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3. Re: Junk Food Advertising Ban by ecosrights, 836 days ago

   Well, the announcement was made yesterday:
   
   "Coming into force from the 1 July, the new rules will ban all ads that condone or encourage poor nutritional habits or unhealthy lifestyles."
   
   "The new rules coincide with the Advertising Standards Authority’s ban of all television ads of products that are high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) aimed at children under the age of 16, which came into force two weeks ago."
   
   

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4. Re: Junk Food Advertising Ban by EviesEarth, 835 days ago

   It is promising to see that there is even attention being paid to this issue. I have seen it as a big problem for some time now.
   We have always watched what we feed our little ones. The problem being was that my oldest would see all these commercials and say well they tell you on the commercial that it is part of a balanced diet and so on. So I have had to explain what that really means to him.
   I look forward to these types of commercial advertising being limited. It is about time. And yes, when I heard about Disney-I thought "yeah, one more reason to really love Disney/Disneyland!"

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5. Re: Junk Food Advertising Ban by RoxyMoron, 833 days ago

   It could be a good idea, but it could be bad for a lot of companies, especially those who market sweets but other things as well.
   I suppose the adverts should be limited during shows that are aimed for very young children, but not completely.

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6. Re: Junk Food Advertising Ban by Anonymous, 805 days ago

   I am shocked at the nearly universal support for this ban. Why does the government continue to push itself into the role of parenting our children? EviesEarth (above) states that her conversations about the ads her children saw were a "problem". I have always welcomed these conversations on all the topics that come up in movies, t.v., and advertising. Artificial bans on "junk food" will only open the door to more government intrusion into family life. We watched "Fast food Nation" to see more information on the subject, and have always eaten healthy anyway. It is meddling where Big Brother doesn't belong to decide what my kids can "deal with". We got rid our t.v. five years ago and only rent movies and shows now. It is called parenting and if more people did it the government might stop trying to do it for us.

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   1. Re: Re: Junk Food Advertising Ban by ecosrights, 805 days ago

      To a certain extent I agree with you - parents need to set a positive role model for their children and actively parent. But, unfortunately there is a high proportion of parents who don't, and as a consequence these children suffer in many ways. If the government can help in a small way such as this, then I think it is positive as it is helping reduce the temptation children have to take the "inappropriate" route. After all, it's not their fault that for one reason or another parents do not take the active parenting role that would prevent this from being necessary. I think that this ban also helps big businesses realise that they have a role to play - it's not all about making as much money as possible, they have to be responsible about how they make their money.
      
      I do think that the recent requests for the government to set TV viewing guidelines are really taking things too far. We have to be trusted to think at times and common sense says that we shouldn't be allowing our children to just sit in front of the television all day. In fact, many of the children's programmes are telling them to get up and do things, so just viewing should discourage continual viewing if parents respond correctly.

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7. Re: Junk Food Advertising Ban by ecosrights, 734 days ago

   Well, according to a survey done by Norwich Union Healthcare British GPs aren't happy with the current ban on advertising to kids, but want a complete ban on advertising....
   
   "Family doctors in the UK have added the weight of their opinion to the obesity debate by demanding a ban on all 'junk food' advertising after a report claimed nutrition labelling systems on food products were failing to make the grade. "
   
   
   (I still can't work out how a certain brand of chips can market themselves as healthy and they get all green lights under the new labelling system...... )

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8. More on Junk food advertising.... by ecosrights, 697 days ago

   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. "
   

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9. Re: Junk Food Advertising Ban by ecosrights, 594 days ago

   There's lots of discussion around now about taking this further to encompass the web, papers, magazines etc and the government have now announced the launch of a plan to monitor the impact of advertising on children as part of their 10 year "Children's Plan".
   
   "A recent National Consumer Council report found youngsters are exposed to hundreds of ads on their favourite websites.
   
   From another, related article:
   
   ""If children are not exposed to sophisticated ads for unhealthy foods, parents will find it easier to encourage healthy eating and the whole country will benefit." "
   
   The study, to be carried out by child psychologists and academics, will look at the potential damage of commercialisation at a younger age. Its findings will help the government make decisions over further advertising restrictions. "
   OK, so to a certain extent I agree. But I hold by my view that parents have an enormous role to play here in not giving children the opportunity to be exposed to the ads so much - don't let them "veg" in front of the television for hours on end. If they do watch, watch it with them and discuss the ads.... when you're shopping, weigh up the pros and cons of foods with them. Our 3 year old is aware that certain foods mean he has excessive energy (ie. v sugary foods) and he knows that they are for limited consumption.
   
   Yes, I admit it's a very middle class view, but parents have to help the children know what's good and what isn't - it's all part of knowing what's right any wrong. At the same time though, I agree, that there is too much advertising of junk and, for that matter, cheap nasty, inappropriate toys (I wont start on that one - it's another discussion altogether)
   
   

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10. Progress.... by ecosrights, 593 days ago

    "Eleven multinational food giants on Tuesday proclaimed their concern for the health of Europe's children in a move intended to forestall threatened EU legislation.
    
    The quasi-dozen (Burger King, Coca-Cola, Danone, Ferrero, General Mills, Kellogg, Kraft, Mars, Nestle, PepsiCo and Unilever) said they will cease junk food advertising targeted at children below the age of twelve across the European Union by the end of 2008. "

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11. Pre Watershed - complete ban cancelled by jane, 540 days ago

    there were plans to completely ban junk food advertising prior to the 2100 watershed in the UK, but recently they have been abandoned. because it would "have a "disproportionate" effect on commercial TV companies, depriving them of up to £211 million ($412.06m; €281.93m) annually in ad revenues. "
    
    ...
    
    "Says Richard Watts, coordinator of the Children'sFood Campaign, with a note of bitterness: "It sounds as if the advertising and food industries owe the Department for Culture Media and Sport a large pat on the back."
    
    In place of the feared embargo is a new plan – Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives – a title more suggestive of the Atkins Diet than a state initiative."
    
    
    As usual, money before health!

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