By Justine Hodge

Will baby steps be enough to keep our kids healthy?

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".