UK ban on junk food ads not working
By Julian Lee
The Sydney
Morning Herald
November 8, 2007
A BRITISH system that is
being considered in Australia as a way to staunch the
flow of television junk food ads aimed at children has
failed, a leading consumer advocacy group says.
Six months after Ofcom, the British media regulator,
introduced rules aimed at banning ads for foods that are
high in fat, salt or sugar from being shown in
children's programs, children are just as likely to be
watching junk food ads as before, says Sue Davies, chief
policy adviser to British consumer organisation Which?
The rules banned ads for foods high in fat, salt or
sugar from being shown during or around programs made
for, or with "particular appeal" to, children under the
age of 10.
But the interpretation of what is meant by "particular
appeal" is based on whether the majority of the audience
watching at any given time is children aged under 16.
According to Which? food advertisers can continue to
book space around programs watched by children but where
adults make up the majority of the audience, such as
soap operas and game shows aired in the early-evening
timeslot.
"All the most popular programs that are watched by
children aren't covered because of the way they are
calculating it," Davies says. "So if you are a Nestle or
a Kellogg you can still advertise to children on TV
where you know you are guaranteed a large number of
children will be watching."
Only six of the top 50 programs watched by children aged
four to 15 on the leading commercial channel, ITV1,
would be captured by the new guidelines, which are being
extended to cover 10- to 15-year-olds next year. Junk
food manufacturers would be barred from advertising
around Bratz, for example, with 128,000 child viewers,
but not from Britain's most popular soap, airing at
7.30pm, Coronation Street, which has 704,000 four- to
10-year-olds watching.
Which? is pushing for the British Government to step in
and rule that no junk food ads should appear before 9pm.
Under the present rules, Ofcom estimates that the
exposure of younger children to junk food ads would be
reduced by 51 per cent and the exposure of older
children by 41 per cent. Those figures would rise to 89
and 82 per cent respectively if a 9pm watershed were
introduced.