By Justine Hodge
Last week the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) released its revised ‘Advertising to Children Code' heralding "major changes". This was a great opportunity for the advertising industry to demonstrate corporate responsibility and to attempt to make significant impact towards improving the health of Australian children.
Australian children are amongst the world's highest viewers of junk food advertisements on television. Nearly 30% of children are now overweight or obese and levels are rising rapidly. This is no mere coincidence. Obesity and health experts across the globe agree that children are directly influenced by the foods they see advertised on television, and that the use of premium such as toys and competitions result in increased pestering for the specific products that they are associated with.
Sadly, the new AANA Code does not make any real headway in controlling the high levels of junk food advertising to children or the use of pester power to sell unhealthy foods. The media release distributed by AANA claims that the new Code includes a "prohibition against ‘pester power'"; however the detail of the Code actually states that an advertisement "must not contain an appeal to children to urge their parents or carers to buy a product for them".
How often do you see an ad in which a child directly nags their parent to buy them junk food? The reality is that this will change nothing. Advertisers will still be able to give away free toys, tie-in with the latest movies and offer competition prizes to lure children into pestering their parents for unhealthy foods.
On a positive note, I am pleased to see that the new Code expands the definition of advertising to include other types of marketing communications such as product websites and other forms of direct marketing such as sampling giveaways on magazines. This is as small step in the right direction, but so much more needs to be done.
Parents are sick of the never ending tirade of unhealthy food ads on TV and they are fed up with being pestered to make purchases because of the lure of a toy or the chance of winning a competition prize. The new Code is only a baby step forward when much larger advancements are needed to protect our children from the food industry's pervasive junk food marketing techniques.
The Parents Jury is an online based forum of over 3,100 parents who are interested in improving the nutrition and physical activity environments of Australian children. We recognise that junk food marketing to children is just one of a number of important issues that are contributing to the rising levels of overweight and obesity in children. We urge the Australian government to legislate against the insidious practice of junk food advertising to children.
Justine Hodge, The Parents Jury Manager
http://www.parentsjury.org.au [1]
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Justine Hodge has been the Manager of The Parents Jury for the past three years. She has over 12 years experience as a communications specialist in the corporate, consumer and not-for-profit sectors in London and Melbourne. The Parents Jury is a not-for-profit organisation funded by Diabetes Australia - Vic, WA and QLD, The Cancer Council Australia and its member bodies, VicHealth, and the Australian and New Zealand Obesity Society.