Junk food ads banned during childrens TV *Has The world gone mad!!*

Hi all.
I am absolutely all for a ban on advertising directed at children and young people, especially when it comes to unhealthy food. I would love to see it taken up in Australia. But I would like it to be done properly, as to do it in half measures can so drastically weaken it's noticable effectiveness that it can become an excuse to say that the measure doesn't work at all.

The change in advertising will make incredible changes to perceptions of food for children in years to come. The changes will not be noticable immediately as parents and children already have dietary habits and values. To change these a lot more education about what actually is healthy and how to achieve this is needed. And a drastic change in school canteen foods!

Where the results will be noticable is in children being born to first time parents over the next few years.

Advertising normalises things which are really just not normal. If a person sees certain foods often enough (on supermarket shelves, advertisments, school canteens, kitchen shelves etc...) then it just starts to seem ok and ordinary and nobody stops to really think about it. They just buy it because 'that's what everybody feeds kids'.
Reducing the advertisements will mean that new consumers (first time parents and young children) are less likely to begin buying a certain product in the first place.

I think the idea of take away and junk food being a 'treat' is common, but people's perceptions of how often it is ok for a child to have a 'treat' varies greatly.
Advertising has, over time, had the effect of making the time between 'treats' become less and less until those foods actually become a part of the regular diet without anyone even questioning it.

On the parents responsibility comments... I do think parents have a responsiblity to care for their children including providing a healthy diet. However, I think that if our society, governements and big business are going to be constantly undermining parents' ability to care for children then we all have to take some responsibility for the results.
Supporting and empowering parents to care for their children is so important and very difficult to do when there is a bombardment of advertising with conflicting messages.

Just on the Macdonalds thing... my daughter has never eaten Macdonalds, but once a few years ago it was a public holiday and there were no other toilets around so we went into one for the first time. She was horrified by the smell and loudly exlaimed "This place stinks!!!" to the shock of the tables full of people eating there. When we got into the toilets she said "ah that's better"..... he he he. It was very cute...

This is rather related:
Australian Adults are the Fattest

As for kids; yes. Ban junkfood ads. But at the same time, the parents need to be a bit stricter. Maccas was only ever a sometimes food for me, chocolate was the same, and I barely remember drinking soft drink. Plus I played sport til the cows came home.

So now as an adult: strictly no maccas (Haven't eaten it in 3 years), softdrink only at work (and even then I try to stick with soda water only), sadly lots of chocolate but we all know I cycle til the cows come home.

Get the good habits in young.

giggles at the fact you used my fave saying which i usualy get the resonse of "but mum we don't have any cows"

The adverts are not such a big thing for us, if the kids want to have any of the junk advertised i say no and explain why. We do not mind the occasional bit of 'junk' but it isn't just these things that are advertised, there are yoghurt ad's,milk ads,sports ad's etc all with the sole purpose of getting people wanting their product. For me it makes no difference what they are advertising they are all a pain in the ass but i say no to the kids. It doesn't take alot to explain why they are advertised and that is doesn't mean that it has to be baught, all adverts have an imact....she says while her two boys are walking around pretending to have huge boobs after a bra advert lol every thing has an impact and it is up to the adults to say no.
I am still against banning them as i know my parenting skills are more than well equiped in dealing with any questions and request my kids throw at me.

me too and it sucks, more effort should be put into helping those who struggle with things like that rahter than the 'easy' option of banning the adverts. the damage has already been done with the parents, patterns and habbits of buying junk etc we have problems now that need dealing with and i think that although it may work in the long run can we afford to wait until the generation of children going without 'harmful' ad's are responsable for buying their own food?

Hi. Yes I work with parents too, and no banning ads won't solve the problem, especially for the people already effected by poor diets and consumerism. A lot has to be done to increase knowledge about what a healthy diet consists of, positive parenting practices, empowering parents to take charge of the decisions etc...
But I think banning advertising to children is a positive cultural step for the future, and will have positive public health results within a short enough time to make it feasable.
Children have the right to be viewed as children rather than as consumers, I think. I think it is a cheap shot when large companies sell things to children rather than to parents. I don't think we have to accept that, and I think we can advocate on behalf of our children for them not to be targetted like that.
As for the nature of the advertising... companies need to take responsibilty and be accountable for how they market their products in often misleading ways. Even adults find it difficult to decipher and read through the marketting. How is a child supposed to do that?

I don't think we have to wait until children being born now are grown and buying their own food. The culture of junk food is directly affected by children pressuring parents into purchasing. That can start to change almost immediately.

When the 'norm' of junk food is so extremely bad, it makes it difficult to actually put in place a truly healthy diet, and even parents who are conscious of healthy eating end up taking a middle ground and allowing things that would otherwise never enter their children's mouths.

I see the ban in advertising of certain products which are a health risk when viewed as 'food', as being a step in changing those 'norms' and a step in our cultures making decisions about what is an acceptable level.

It's great GothFrogette that you are strong with your children and have a relationship with them where they listen to your explanations and respect your decisions. I take that approach too, and explain the process of how the companies go about convincing people of things which are not often true. We also don't have the kids watching commercial television....

Be well...

I find this whole suggestion fairly ludicrous myself. It is a severe impediment of the Liberties of businesses within our nation. If McDonalds wants to advertise, I don't see why they should not be allowed to. McDonalds has changed a lot over the years, reacting to the increasingly obvious fact that social-responsibility can be a big profit-puller. They disclose all their nutritional information, and provide healthier alternatives. I've read a lot of blaming of McDonalds, but it's not their fault, they are simply reacting to consumer demands. If demand for orange juice was higher than cola, guess which one they'd have a larger stock of?

McDonald's should not have it's freedoms impeached upon because some people cannot control their own actions, that seems highly unjust.

The solution I think, is education. Media studies should be compulsory education, now that it has become such an integral part of our society. People should be taught how advertising works, how to break it down, analyse it and understand it. Once we understand these things, I think we'll find the knee-jerk fear-based reaction to "Ban it" will dissipate.

My key argument for not banning "junk" food advertising is that it is wrongfully taking away business' freedoms, and puts us straight onto the slippery slope of censorship. It angers me when I see people continuously purchase products that they KNOW are bad for them (if you don't know that junk food is high in fat, it's probably not just your physical health that is poor) and then complain and moan that "the corporation made me fat". You decide what you put into your body, you know what you're putting into your body, you do with your body as you please. If you fill it with high-fat food products, and don't exercise enough to burn off the energy given to you from such products, well... who's really to blame? And who should suffer the consequences?

Nathaniel, I can't agree when you state that "If demand for orange juice was higher than cola, guess which one they'd have a larger stock of?"

The thing is that cola is cheap. Really cheap. Therefore by pushing this over fresh juice drinks the corporation can make huge profits. Is it not obvious that consumer demands are dictated much more by advertising than the other way around as you suggest? If it was any other way then advertising itself would be completely pointless.

I fully agree that it is the responsibility of the parents to control their children's diets, but suggesting that McDonalds are somehow impartial in this, just providing what people want can be nothing but fantasy. At the end of the day all they are interested in is money, and time and again they have shown this to be more important than health, hygiene, human rights, animal rights and almost any other moral we should be allowed to expect of a company which we allow to trade on our soil.

Good idea, although I think it's pretty naive to assume that children only watch children's TV.

I can see your point Nathaniel (slippery censorship slope), but I support the ban. I mean let’s be honest censorship is already rife within television, we just call it lot’s of other names. In the same way, as a smoker, I supported the smoking advertisement ban and 'you will die tomorrow' messages brandished on every pack. And to a certain extent the public smoking ban.

Despite the committed parents we clearly have here, many out there are simply not and rely on television as a free nanny of sorts. I know this, as I would imagine some others here do, from being partially raised this way.

When eating McDonalds as a child I had absolutely no idea that that it was bad for me. It wasn't until I was 15/16 and was so utterly appalled by a meal I received (chips/frys were potato shells filled with dirty fryer fat, burger looked like it'd been stepped on) that I had a 'Falling Down' moment and one good McRant later boycotted the lot.

As a sidenote the implication that McDonalds is a treat surely worsens the issue, as when we grow up we can afford/tend to 'treat' ourselves more often. Although I suppose at that age those who should know better, will.

I think what separates TV from ethical marketing mediums is that it doesn’t inform. It subconsciously drills. Sure one McAdvert per afternoon may not be bad but have you watched television recently? there’s only about 20 adverts on (in the UK at least)! Just over and over again. And when some new limited edition uberburger comes out it’s advertised every break. I don’t see them as supplying to meet demand, so much as telling you to want something, and then selling it to you (which IMHO is a bit much for kids). Obviously many businesses work this way, but that doesn’t mean I have to like or support it. And I think getting the government to realise that children are even more susceptible to these methods, and that not all parents can/will do the right thing is an important first step.

Now, if you want to ban an ad here in the UK… let’s make it injurylawyers4u/national accident helpline etc. the McDonalds of the Benefit’s generation.

[/JibbaJabba]

*Not having a TV, goes to the kitchen for a snack, and comes back with a carrot*

I've been seriously thinking about getting rid of my tv, the amount of time we waste as a family is ridiculous!! I think I'd be out numbered though...
I can remove it from the living room, just as long as there's still one in the house for mega starwars marathons .