Vox Pop: Should TV ads for unhealthy foods be banned before 9pm?
Monday, June 28, 2010
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) wants a ban on junk food advertising before the 9pm watershed.
YES: Paul Sacher, chief research and development officer, Mend
I agree with the Nice guidelines that advertising standards should be based on a child's right to a healthy diet.
At Mend, we would welcome further advertising restrictions to prevent children's exposure to unhealthy foods and drinks. However, it is important to tackle childhood obesity through a combination of approaches and children should be helped to develop positive, life-long habits in relation to food.
To support this, there needs to be more community-based healthy lifestyle programmes for families to equip them with the information and support they need to make healthier choices.
YES: Tam Fry, board member, National Obesity Forum
Nice has produced a clear set of proposals that must be acted upon. Top of the list is a ban on advertising for unhealthy foods before 9pm. Children are open to persuasion and the cumulative effect of such advertising has a detrimental effect on their eating habits.
What makes it worse is that their favourite characters are often used to promote these foods. They recognise these characters as friends, but these are friends that are, in reality, peddling unhealthy foods.
NO: Ian Barber, director of industry affairs, Advertising Association
Nice claims that a 9pm watershed would mean an 82 per cent reduction in kids' exposure to this type of advert, but fails to ask whether fewer ads mean a better diet. It is a simplistic approach. The government's Foresight Report lists 10 major factors in child obesity, from social pressures to activity levels, price and the food itself. Advertising is a footnote and the evidence shows that its impact on diet is marginal. Given this, Nice's knee-jerk demands are not just disproportionate, but worryingly short-sighted, putting at risk advertising's ability to fund a plethora of grassroots sports and initiatives that promote active, healthy lifestyles.
YES: Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics, British Medical Association
It is essential that adverts for unhealthy foods are banned not only before 9pm but at any time.
Adverts affect what we buy and what we want from life, including our preferences for food. Some of the most popular programmes among the under-16s are shown after 9pm, so drastic action is needed. The UK is in the midst of an obesity epidemic and we must prevent the next generation being the most unhealthy in history.
Obesity in children stores up a lifetime of poor health. They are at greater risk of having high blood pressure, diabetes and heart problems. Isn't the health of our children more important than advertising revenues?