Forums > Social Discussion > junk food ads banned during childrens TV *Has The world gone mad!!*

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
Because parents will find it hard to say no to kids. If a child sees an advert on TV for McDs or chocolate, not getting it will to them be very much on par with child abuse.

Yes Parents need to develop a backbone and learn to say 'no' and also explain to kids in a way they can understand that is emotional and heartfelt...

It's a sad that fact parents rely on the television as a babysitter these days and big companies are aware of this and will take advantage of this, advertising directly to the children using what is known in the marketing industry as 'The Nag Factor' (seriously!) effectively turning them into consumers at an early age.

The flipside of this is that if they are successful in banning the ads. Fastfood and sweets still have the mythic power via word of mouth, being treated as a dark secret which makes it all the more enticing and something of a holy grail for kids. Along the same lines as cigarettes and alcohol. If it's marketed as something for adults, the kids will probably want it more!

Actually as I'm typing I'm starting to find myself more aligned with the side of making parents take responsibility. It's only thing to 'treat' kids every now and again, it's another to pander to their every tantrum and keeping them placated by giving them what they want.

Obese parents almost certainly pass on their eating habits to their kids instead of looking at themselves in the mirror and deciding not to abandon their children to the same fate and lead by example...

Flipping back - corporations bad blah!

"I used to want to change the world, now I just wanna leave the room with a little dignity..." - Lotus Weinstock

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
I'm with you on this one Mel. What will they bann next?

"I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day,and if you can source your own life from its presence.." - Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
I'm glad they banned junk food ads.

Hoppers are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
You guys may be fit and healthy, but this is a step I'm glad to see being taken, the UK in general is well on the way to becoming a mini America, and this move may help prevent that.

Parents don't get as much of a say in the matter as you guys would like to believe, if the kids get some inkling to want to eat crap, they go out and find some way of getting hold of it themselves.

I've seen kids stating flat out they'd rather eat a bag of crisps than any kind of fruit, ever, as they 'taste better'.

I find that abhorrent.

I can't see that being anything more than advertising, and habit.

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Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
I wish it would happen here.

TAJ "boat mummy." VALURA "yes sweetie you went on a boat, was daddy there with you?" TAJ "no, but monkey on boat" VALURA "well then sweetie, Daddy WAS there with you"

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
Being hypocritical here but despite having a junkfood diet myself I do long for the days when everyone bought food from the market and specialist shops in their baskets instead of having everything prepacked in wrappers that will get thrown away...

"I used to want to change the world, now I just wanna leave the room with a little dignity..." - Lotus Weinstock

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
Although I welcome any act that moves people away from mass produced, badly sourced, unhealthy food I'm really not sure how much good this will do.

It is not too far removed from the smoking advert ban of 2003, where the department of health claims it will only reduce smoking by 2.5% in the long term. That is not to say that it was a pointless move, but I think the importance of adverts is over stressed.

In both cases I see the only point of the adverts is to keep them in the public mind. Someone who smokes will not stop smoking just because the adverts aren't there, and most people have a brand they like and will stick to no matter what.

What they will do it make the watcher feel like they are taking part in society. I really believe that these adverts address peoples need to be accepted, play of deep seated feelings that we almost all have, the same way as a cold reader would, for example: "You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a strong need for other people to like you and for them to admire you." will apply to most people reading this.

I don't know why, but the idea that taking your children to a fast food 'restaurant' is a treat seems popular. I think that idea is one that will remain for a long time no matter if there are adverts or not.

There's too many home fires burning and not enough trees

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
i'm against supermarkets and packeged foods also dave. i preffer my fruit and veg from markets and i cannot stand packaged meals simply for the act that the human diet wasn't designed for addatives, preservatives and all the other craap they pump into foods these days.

i could easy go into a rant about tesco but i will hold off as thats anther thread subject

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
This is one thing I can support and do think that in fact we do need protection from some ridiculous and BS ads...

Just my 2c

the best smiles are the ones you lead to

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
Reclaim yor mind



some of the things mentoned in this video do in some way tie into this subject

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007


My diet isn't great either, but I am glad they're banning ads. I don't think that this in itself will make that much difference, as Neon said some kids will still want them if they're seen as a forbidden thing, but it's a small step in the right direction.

I think the issue is a pretty complex one, as it doesn't just relate to our cultural attitudes towards food but also the rest of our lifestyle, our attitudes towards health and our bodies.

There are a lot of parents out there who see junk food as the quickest/easiest/cheapest option when their kids are hungry. Some parents seem to be so busy juggling work and other responsibilities that their kids are left to sort themselves out when it comes to food. I remember when I was at primary school and both my parents were working long hours, my mum wouldn't trust me to cook on the stove but she was happy for me to stick ready meals in the microwave when I got home from school. I know many families who no longer sit down together at the table to eat as a family and I think this is sometimes part of the problem too.

Also, some kids are just not very concious of their health compared to others. When I was about 11 I remember kind of knowing that my diet was unhealthy compared to other kids at my school but it just didn't bother me. It's a bit like when a smoker knows what they are doing is very likely to give them cancer, but they still refuse to quit for various reasons. It seems hard for some people to equate smoking and bad diet with health problems if they do not have any experience of this happening that they can relate to.

I had a friend on the other hand (age 11) who was very concious of the effects of her diet, who ate very healthily and was very aware of the health implications of not eating the right foods. There are many reasons why some children will truly understand the health risks and behave accordingly but others won't. A lot comes down to the messages they get from their family and the rest of society and how well they internalise these messages into their way of seeing the world.

Another thing I feel worth mentioning here is food phobia, fear and anxiety felt about certain foods. Some kids are just fussy eaters, but others really do experience psychological distress when faced with the prospect of eating certain foods (I know cos I was one of them!). If fussy eating escalates into this, it becomes a serious problem, one that I think may be on the rise.

The levels of anxiety experienced by a food phobic will cause them to go to great lengths to avoid being faced with their fear. They also develop a physiological 'choking/wretching' response when they try to eat the foods they are phobic about, which in turn feeds their anxiety about the food so the whole thing goes on in a cycle that's hard to break out of. Forcing kids who have this response to healthy food to consume it just makes the problem worse, as their anxiety and distress will make them avoid the experience in the future as much as possible (they will also feed off the anxiety expressed by the forceful parent about their kid's diet).

I would suggest to any parent who is seriously worried about their child's 'fussy eating' to seek help from a doctor or psychiatrist who can help... obviously some kids are just a bit fussy, but if it escalates too much it can be a really hard problem to deal with in later life if the phobia becomes deeply ingrained in the psyche.

Sorry I've ranted on! I just think it's a growing problem that's worth considering in the debate about healthy eating.

Idolized by Aurinoko

Take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind....

Bob Dylan

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
Oh, the was aimed at Neon's last post, you guys are far too quick and got in before me!

Idolized by Aurinoko

Take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind....

Bob Dylan

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
Tea Fairy, some good points, and interesting to hear about your phobia (do you still have it, do you mind me asking?).

I'm not sure if it is seen as a bad thing by most people. I remember on my 9th birthday I really wanted to go to mcdonalds. I know (and I think I did at the time) that I wanted to go because I wanted to fit in - I had some friends with me who would eat there all the time and I never did - I wanted to feel like I was a part of that group: a very important thing for a 9 year old. I think I managed about half of whatever it was I ordered before giving up on it - it was horrid and I've not been in one since (ok, so I use the loos from time to time).

I know at the time I didn't think once about how good the food was for me - the social pressure and tempting smalls did it for me and at that point I stopped thinking.

I don't know how typical that is, it could just be me. I left school about 2 weeks after, and never looked back!

There's too many home fires burning and not enough trees

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
Good riddance to the ads- I hope they do extend it up to 9pm.

Targetting children with marketing designed to get them eating unhealthy and habit-forming 'food' is, IMO, wrong.

"You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it."

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"Last of The Lancers"
AFC 32


Educate your self in the Hazards of Fire Breathing STAY SAFE!

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
the ones that sicken me the most have almost always been mcdonalds, they've caused me to shout at the TV on many an occasion.

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Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
I think it's got to be a good thing. Kids are generally unable to make informed choices about their own nutrition, and they are so easily influenced, they'll believe anything (I'm a teacher, so I know ). I'll bet a lot of parents out there think that a large chunk of processed cheese flavoured fat in their kids' lunchbox is good for them - well it is "full of calcium for growing kids".

When I was about 6, my best friend told me that ketchup was "bad for you" because it was full of sugar and salt, for ages afterwards I refused to eat ketchup, even with McDonalds (where it was probably the most healthy part of the meal - apart from the gerkin maybe). With this in mind I can't feel at all comfortable with the ethics of telling kids that unhealthy foods are "cool" or putting a spin on the health benefits.

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007

 Written by: Yakumo



the ones that sicken me the most have almost always been mcdonalds, they've caused me to shout at the TV on many an occasion.

did you know Mc filth is THE biggest toy manufacturer in the word, and it also uses slave labour???



also the meat they use is grade E meat...........they use grade D meat for pet food





and the food products it sells are grim as you like



i've not eaten fast food in 4 years, i refuse t go to a super market, and whenever adverts come on i change channel.

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
Sym, I do still kind of have a problem with food but I'm trying to deal with it at the moment... reconditioning my thought patterns after 22 years of unfounded anxiety is really hard work!

I've got to the point where I understand the problem enough to be able to spot my thoughts going into anxiety mode, I know it's a completely unfounded fear but I need to keep telling myself that. I've been trying 'progressive desensitisation', basically getting used to having the foods that trigger the anxiety around me, touching them, looking at them, smelling them, lifting them up and putting them near my mouth.

I'm at a point where I can voluntarily bring myself to chew and swallow some of them, but I still have trouble because my brain tries to tell me it's all very unpleasant and I still get the choking/wretching feeling sometimes, which really is the hardest bit to overcome. Apparently hypnotherapy can help this, but I'm short on cash at the moment so the self-help route is my only viable option at present.

Here is some more info on food phobia generally:

https://www.justbewell.com/eating_disorder_hypnotherapy_nlp_help_london.html

I just can't express enough how difficult it is to overcome this after so many years.

Idolized by Aurinoko

Take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind....

Bob Dylan

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
Amazing, thanks for the link

I feel the same way about bananas - I feel sick when I smell them to the point that I have to leave the room and it can take up to half an hour to feel right again.

It could be something like what you are talking about, or just the fact that they are horrid

There's too many home fires burning and not enough trees

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007

 Written by: Ravehead

did you know Mc filth is THE biggest toy manufacturer in the word, and it also uses slave labour???

also the meat they use is grade E meat...........they use grade D meat for pet food

I'd be interested in where you heard this and finding out more. Have you got any sources please? (or should that be sauces?)

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
some interesting information here.

There's too many home fires burning and not enough trees

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007
All very good points.
as a parent of two i am a big fan of the word NO it works. we do go to some fast food places every now and again but the rest of the time we eat nice fresh real meals made from scratch. i have always served healthy food to the kids, its actually much cheeper too.

i personaly don't think banning the ads is going to be make any difference. the majority of parents just shop in the super markets and i think more effort and energy should be put into adressing the way they 'push the junk' with selling srtatagies such as the eye level selling techinque. i think for far too long parents have just been giving onto their children for an easy life, this is illustrated by the huge amounts of publicity and other tv programms that are now showing over weight teenagers. They didn't juyst get like it over night. if they kept the adverts and used the money to train more health visitors for example that may help. get the parents while the children are young.More lessons in school about it and perhaps parenting classes too.
the smoking ads got banned and yet the child smoking rate is at its highest. Banning the junk food ads now is not going to stop the parents from buying the same things as they always have, leading to the possibility of those children growing up and feeding their children the same.

The food companies will find another way of getting into the homes, anyone esle notice that when the schools stopped selling chips as much the news papers and magazines started to fill with money off cupons and cupons for free chips!! i wonder how long it will take for this to happen with other things now the companies have some money to burn.

as for supermarkest Vs individual shops, markets farms, or actually growng your own .... don't get me started. ,

Life's too short to worry about where you put your marshmallows

Posted: 23rd Feb 2007

 Written by: ravehead


also the meat they use is grade E meat...........they use grade D meat for pet food

Of course the other way to view this is that rather than "Mc Donald's feed people meat worse than pet food" is "We're happy to feed our pets better meat than we feed eathother..."

Just a thought...

Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I can beat the world into submission.

Posted: 24th Feb 2007


so true!

There's too many home fires burning and not enough trees

Posted: 24th Feb 2007

 Written by: Sym


some interesting information here.

Those are just urban myths though, not actual information about what's in McDonalds food.

I'm quite surprised that no-one who has access to the proper equipment has just gone and bought a few burgers and tested them in their spare time - if I had the right kit I know that I'd be very curious to see what's inside them.

But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

Posted: 24th Feb 2007
Who says the ingredients in Mcfood are a big secret? The ingredients are listed online in websites like this one which took me less than a minute to find.

Thing is, the letter designation when applied to beef ( this is different when used with chicken ) applies to the age of the cow, nothing more. So a statement like "McDonalds uses grade E beef" really means that they're buying old dairy cows, nothing more....But maybe things are different in the UK.

The big problem with mcfood is the fat content

Anyways...back on topic..I have a hard time opposing any scheme that tries to limit advertising, especially to children, who we all know aren't really interested or capable of making informed buying decisions.

Posted: 24th Feb 2007
i see it as moderation
the parents need to enforce a healthy diet...and yes junk food tastes heavenly by the way
one thing that i used to do to avoid the "ready to nuke" meals is cook everything on sunday and wrap up meals for each day...homecooked at least
i think it would be better to ban snack machines in the school, rather than ads on the tv

Faith
Nay, whatever comes one hour was sunlit and the most high gods may not make boast of any better thing than to have watched that hour as it passed

Posted: 24th Feb 2007
how many children do you know who watch tv during these times buy the weekly shop? the adverts are not being taken off durning other TV programms that kids will also see eg the dodgy soaps.
when some schools banned chips from the menu at school some parents were caught selling chips and burgers to the kids through the play ground fences.

in my opinion the nanny state is just getting worse and worse.

Life's too short to worry about where you put your marshmallows

Posted: 24th Feb 2007
What sort of diet do you suppose you'd end up with if you let children do the weekly shop ? If the answers a balanced diet, then you've taught your children well. If the answers junk food, then advertising has taught your children well.

Is selling chips and burgers to kids through a schoolyard fence legal in the UK ? If I went out and tried that here, I could expect trouble, but it does raise the interesting idea about parking a mobile chip shop outside a schoolyard....would that fly ?

Quite ofter, we as a society tend to blame our social woes on the government, at least the British government can't be accused of inaction when it comes to childhood obesity. We have the same issues here, but more revolving around what's in the vending machines as very few of our schools have cafeterias in them.

IMO,,, the nanny state goes too far when they apply this sort of tactic to adults,,like banning junk food advertising during the dodgy soaps.

Posted: 24th Feb 2007

 Written by: Stout


Who says the ingredients in Mcfood are a big secret? The ingredients are listed online in websites like this one which took me less than a minute to find.

I meant more along the lines of all the wierd additives that alot of people say are in McDonalds food, to see if there's any truth in the large number of rumours.
I imagine it'd be time spent finding out that yes, it's all anti-mcdonalds propaganda.

The food standards agency obviously reckons that McDonalds food is good enough to eat, otherwise it wouldn't be allowed to sell it. That doesn't mean I'm going to eat it every day though.

But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.