Obesity Policy Coalition wants both parties to fine and impose ad bans those who break rules around junk food advertising for kids
Anti-obesity advocates have called for food manufacturers to face harsh fines and ad bans for a period of time if they continue to flout rules around marketing of junk food to children.
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Anti-obesity advocates have called for food manufacturers to face harsh fines and complete bans on advertising for a period of time if they continue to flout rules around marketing of junk food to children.
The Obesity Policy Coalition is calling on both political parties to commit to removing the self-regulatory system currently in place and implement harsh penalties for those companies who sneakily market junk food to kids.
They want the government to impose “meaningful sanctions” on companies who breach these rules and monitor and enforce compliance through an independent agency.
Without stronger rules our kids’ waistlines will continue to expand the group says.
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OPC Executive Manager Jane Martin said successive governments have left children’s health in the hands of the food industry, who’s end goal will always be to sell more products and make a bigger profit.
“For too long we have left it up to junk food companies to police themselves. We’ve seen no reduction in unhealthy marketing to children since these sham rules were introduced,” Ms Martin said.
“If the next Government is truly committed to tackling Australia’s obesity epidemic, it needs to start by supporting families and protecting children from the industry’s tactics to build brand awareness and foster unhealthy behaviours.”
The call comes as a complaint made by the OPC to the Advertising Standards Community Panel about Kellogg’s marketing their LCM bars directly to children was dismissed.
The ad, which was aired on TV and is on YouTube, shows young children playing in a treehouse marked ‘no grown ups’. A woman stands below with a box of Kellogg’s choc chip LCM snack bars.
When she opens the box, individual puffs of rice and chocolate chips float up into the air towards the treehouse and form into a bar that appears in the hand of one of the children, who looks at it with amazement. A voiceover and a message at the end says “Light up their afternoons with the awesomeness of puffed rice”.
The complaint was dismissed, despite the panel saying that the ad would be attractive to children as well as to adults.
Two in three Australian adults and one in four Australian children are overweight or obese leading health experts to fear the current generation of kids will be the first to die before their parents due to weight-related poor health.
The Responsible Children’s Marketing Initiative states that food advertising cannot be placed in a medium that is directed primarily to children (eg a TV program rated C or P), placed in a medium where children are 35 per cent or more of the audience and directed primarily to children when considering the ad’s themes, visuals and language.
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Originally published as Obesity Policy Coalition wants both parties to fine and impose ad bans those who break rules around junk food advertising for kids
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