Young people are constantly bombarded with junk food marketing. £480m is spent each year advertising products high in fat, salt and sugar on television alone.
Mark
Junk food marketing contradicts all the messages about healthy eating children receive, undermining their ability to choose better food and their parents’ efforts to feed them healthily.
Research by the Food Standard’s Agency, and others, has shown that junk food advertising directly and indirectly influences children’s food preferences, purchasing behavior and consumption.
Around 70 percent of the television that children watch is outside the hours of ‘children’s TV’. This is why the Children’s Food Campaign wants to protect children from junk food advertising before the 9pm watershed.
A 9pm watershed for junk food adverts will:
Protect children: This will eliminate over 80% of instances of kids watching junk food TV advertising.
Help parents: It will also provide clarity on when junk food adverts will be shown, allowing parents to exercise responsibility over whether their kids see junk food adverts.
Improve children’s health: Even highly conservative estimates show that the health benefits from a 9pm watershed for junk food TV adverts will save the UK up to almost a billion pounds a year
The British Heart Foundation are running a Food4Thought campaign that shows how junk food companies are targeting young people through different kinds of advertising and how to protect yourself from these underhand tactics. You can find out more from the website http://food4thought.bhf.org.uk/
The Food Products (Marketing to Children) Bill
A new Private Members’ Bill on the promotion of food to children has been introduced in parliament by Nigel Griffiths MP.
The Bill seeks to:
• introduce a 9 pm watershed for television advertising of unhealthy food; and
• protect children from other methods of marketing for unhealthy food (e.g. via websites, email or SMS text messages).
The Bill is due to have its Second Reading on Friday 25th April 2008.
In order for any private members bill to progress any further and have a chance to become law at least 100 MPs need to vote in favour at its Second Reading. This means they need to be present in the House of Commons rather than in their constituencies on a Friday.
Early Day Motion
Nigel Griffith has also tabled an Early Day Motion number 445 titled ‘Marketing of Food to Children’ in order to build parliamentary support for the Bill.
What do you think?
What do you think about the way that advertisers market food to children and young people?
Would you be in favour of banning junk food adverts before 9 p.m.?
What can you do?
If you think this issue is important perhaps you and other members of your School Council could:
• Organise a debate to find out what others in your school thinks.
• Write to your MP to tell her or him how strongly you feel about this issue.
• Invite your MP to the debate.
• Ask your MP to support Nigel Griffiths’ Bill and attend the Second Reading on 25th April 2008.