FOOD ADVERTISING

TO CHILDREN
POLICY BRIEF

SUMMARY
Children are exposed to a huge amount of
unhealthy food advertising in Australia
through television and other media. There is
substantial evidence that this advertising
influences childrens food preferences and
consumption, and is likely to contribute to
overweight and obesity. Current regulations
are ineffective for reducing childrens
exposure to unhealthy food advertising.
National legislation is required to restrict all
forms of unhealthy food advertising directed
to children, or to which children are exposed
to a significant degree. There is a very high
level of public support for such legislation.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
There is a vast amount of food advertising* to
children on television in Australia, most of which is
for unhealthy products.
1-5

Food advertisers also frequently target children
through other channels, including childrens
magazines,
6
websites,
7
outdoor media,
8
direct mail,
email and food packaging.
9

Promotional techniques used by food companies to
target children include:
offers of premiums with products, such as free
toys and competitions
endorsements by popular childrens personalities
or characters
tie-in promotions of products with childrens
films
advergames (computer games) on food company
websites, and
childrens clubs on food company websites, where
children register their details to access website
activities and receive food vouchers and other
promotional material.
WHAT ARE THE
IMPLICATIONS?
Food advertising influences childrens food
preferences and consumption, and is likely to
contribute to poor diets, weight gain and obesity in
children. It also undermines healthy eating messages
from parents, schools and government. This is of
serious concern when nearly a quarter of Australian
children are overweight and obese.
Food advertising to children also raises serious
ethical concerns, as children do not have the
cognitive capacity to understand and resist the
influence of advertising.
WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?
Childrens vulnerability to
advertising
Psychological research has found that children are
highly vulnerable to advertising because they do not
understand its persuasive intent and lack the
cognitive ability needed to interpret advertising
messages critically.
11



POLICY BRIEF: FOOD ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN PAGE 2
Effects of food advertising on
children
Comprehensive and systematic reviews of the
evidence on food advertising to children have
consistently concluded that food advertising
influences the types of food children prefer, demand
and consume, and is likely to contribute to poor diets,
negative health outcomes, weight gain and obesity in
children.
12-17

Benefits of restricting food
advertising
Restricting unhealthy food advertising to children
has been estimated to be one of the most cost-
effective interventions to prevent childhood obesity.
It has been estimated that banning unhealthy food
advertising on television during popular childrens
viewing times would cost as little as $3.70 per
disability-adjusted life year (DALY) saved and result
in a $300 million per year saving.
18,19

The UK Office of Communications (Ofcom) estimated
that UK restrictions on advertising high fat, sugar
and salt foods in childrens TV programs led to a 37%
reduction in high fat, sugar and salt food
advertisements seen by children. Ofcom estimated
that younger children (aged 4-9 years) saw 52%
less unhealthy food ads, while older children (aged
10-15 years) saw 22% less ads.
20
Ofcom reported that
there was no decline in total advertising revenue for
TV channels after the introduction of the UK
restrictions.
21






WHAT ACTION HAS BEEN
TAKEN?
Current food advertising
regulations
There is no specific government regulation of
unhealthy food advertising to children in Australia.
The Childrens Television Standards are the only
government regulations dealing with advertising to
children. They apply only to advertising on free-to-air
television during (low-rating) P and C classified
childrens programs, and include only one provision
on food advertising (which prevents ads that contain
misleading information about the nutritional content
of foods). The Standards do not apply at times or
during programs when most children watch TV, and
do not include any general restrictions on unhealthy
food advertising.
Food advertising to children through other media is
self-regulated by the food and advertising industries
under voluntary codes.
These codes do not apply to the highest rating
childrens programs, do not cover all forms of
promotion, do not apply to all food advertisers, and
contain unclear and inadequate nutrition criteria.
Compliance with the codes is not monitored, and
there are no sanctions for breaches. As a result, the
codes are ineffective for reducing childrens exposure
to unhealthy food advertising.
Recommendations to restrict food
advertising to children
In recognition of the evidence of the effects of
unhealthy food advertising on children, in 2010 the
World Health Assembly endorsed recommendations
by the World Health Organization for countries to
develop policy mechanisms to reduce childrens
exposure to unhealthy food advertising and to
eliminate this advertising from childrens settings.
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POLICY BRIEF: FOOD ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN PAGE 3
In 2009, the National Preventative Health Taskforce,
established by the Australian Government,
recommended that the exposure of children and
others to marketing, advertising, promotion, and
sponsorship of energy-dense nutrient poor food and
beverages should be reduced, as part of a range of
measures to address obesity. Specifically, the
Taskforce recommended that restrictions on
marketing of unhealthy foods should be introduced,
commencing with the phasing out of unhealthy food
advertising to children on free-to-air and pay TV over
4 years, and the phasing out of premium offers, toys,
competitions and the use of promotional characters
to market these foods to children across all media
sources.
11
The Taskforces Technical Report on
Obesity suggested that consideration should be given
to banning the advertising of energy-dense, nutrient
poor foods and beverages on free-to-air television
during childrens viewing hours, i.e. between 6am
and 9pm, and reducing or removing such advertising
in other media, such as print, internet, radio, in-store
and via mobile telephone.
12

WHAT ACTION IS NEEDED?
National legislation is needed to comprehensively
restrict all forms of unhealthy food advertising that is
directed to children or to which children are exposed
to a significant degree.
Ideally, legislation should be introduced at the
Commonwealth level to ensure national consistency.
However state and territory parliaments would also
have the power to enact legislation to prohibit most
forms of unhealthy food advertising to children.
Uniform state/territory legislation may be needed to
effectively regulate some forms of advertising that
crosses state borders, e.g. pay TV and internet
advertising.
Legislation should prohibit television advertising of
unhealthy food or beverages (identified using
nutrient profile criteria) at times when a significant
number of children are likely to be watching
television: weekdays, 69am and 49pm, and
weekends and school holidays, 6am12pm and
49pm.
Legislation should also prohibit all other forms of
promotion of unhealthy foods or beverages directed
to children, including via magazines, radio, internet,
cinema, outdoor media, direct marketing (email, SMS
or direct mail), school and sports sponsorship, and
point of sale promotions.
PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR
ACTION
A 2008 survey found that 91% of consumers surveyed
were in favour of the Government introducing
stronger restrictions to reduce the amount of
unhealthy food advertising seen by children, with
79% strongly in favour.
22

MORE INFORMATION
For more information, refer to the following Obesity
Policy Coalition policy briefs and reports:
Evidence of the effects of food advertising on
children
Regulation of food advertising to children in
Australia
Food advertising voluntary codes
A comprehensive approach to protecting children
from unhealthy food advertising and promotion.
REFERENCES
1. Kelly B, Smith B, King L, Flood V, & Bauman A. Television
food advertising to children: the extent and nature of exposure.
Public Health Nutrition 2007; 10: 1234-1240.
2. Chapman K, Nicholas P, & Supramaniam R. How much food
advertising is there on Australian television? Health Promotion
International 2006; 21: 172-180.
3. Neville L, Thomas M, & Bauman A. Food advertising on
Australian television: the extent of childrens exposure. Health
Promotion International 2005; 20: 105-112.
4. Zuppa J, Morton H, & Mehta K. Television food advertising:
counterproductive to childrens health? A content analysis
using the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating. Nutrition and
Dietetics 2003; 60: 78-84.
5. Hill J, & Radimer K. A content analysis of food advertisements
in television for Australian children. Australian Journal of
Nutrition & Dietetics 1997; 54:174-181.
6. Kelly B, & Chapman K. Food references and marketing to
children in Australian magazines: a content analysis Health
Promotion International 2007; 22: 284-291.

POLICY BRIEF: FOOD ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN PAGE 4
7. Kelly B, Bochynska, K, Kornman K, & Chapman K. Internet
food marketing on popular childrens websites and food
product websites in Australia. Public Health Nutrition 2008, 11,
1180-1187.
8. Kelly B, Cretikos M, Rogers K, & King L. The commercial food
landscape: outdoor food advertising around primary schools in
Australia. Australian New Zealand Journal of Public Health
2008, 32, 522-528.
9. Chapman K, Nicholas P, Banovic D, & Supramaniam R. The
extent and nature of food promotion directed to children in
Australian supermarkets. Health Promotion International 2006,
21, 331-339.
10. World Health Organization. Set of recommendations on the
marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children.
Geneva: World Health Organization, 2010. Available from
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2010/9789241500210_en
g.pdf (accessed 29 March 2011).
11. Kunkel D, Wilcox BL, Cantor J, Palmer E, Linn S & Dowrick P.
Report of the APA Task Force on Advertising and Children.
Washington DC: American Psychological Association, 2004,
<http://www.apa.org/releases/childrenads.pdf>.
12. Cairns G, Angus K, and Hastings G. The extent, nature and
effects of food promotion to children: A review of the evidence
to December 2008. Geneva: World Health Organisation, 2009.
13. Hastings G, McDermott L, Angus K, Stead M, Thomson S. The
extent, nature and effects of food promotion to children: a
review of the evidence. Geneva: World Health Organization,
2006.
14. Livingstone S. New Research on Advertising Foods to
Children: An Updated Review of the Literature, published as
Annex 9 to Ofcom Television Advertising of Food and Drink
Products to Children consultation, London: Ofcom, 2006.
15. JM McGinnis, JA Gootman, VI Kraak, eds. Food Marketing to
Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity? Washington DC:
Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2005.
16. McDermott L, Hastings G, Angus K. Desk Research to
Examine the Influence of Marketing on Childrens Food
Behaviour. Prepared for the World Health Organization.
Glasgow: Centre for Social Marketing, 2004.
17. Hastings G, Stead M, McDermott L, Alasdair F, MacKintosh
AM, Rayner M, Godfrey C. Caraher M, & Angus K. Review of
the research on the effects of food promotion to children (Final
report). London: Food Standards Agency, 2003.
18. ACE-Obesity. Assessing cost-effectiveness of obesity
interventions in children and adolescents. Summary of results.
Melbourne: Victorian Government Department of Human
Services, 2006.
19. Magnus A, Haby MM, Carter R, Swinburn B. The cost-
effectiveness of removing television advertising of high-fat
and/or high-sugar food and beverages to Australian children.
International Journal of Obesity (Lond) 2009.
20. Ofcom. HFSS advertising restrictions: final review. London:
Ofcom, 2009.
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/tv-
research/hfss-review-final.pdf%20.
21. Ofcom. Changes in the nature and balance of television food
advertising to children: a review of HFSS advertising
restrictions. London: Ofcom, 2008.
22. Morley B, Martin J, and Dixon H. Obesity prevention policy
initiatives: consumer acceptability. Centre for Behavioural
Research in Cancer, Cancer Council Victoria, 2008.
About the Obesity Policy Coalition
The Obesity Policy Coalition (OPC) is a coalition
between the Cancer Council Victoria, Diabetes
Australia Victoria, VicHealth and the WHO
Collaborating Centre on Obesity Prevention at
Deakin University. The OPC is concerned about rates
of overweight and obesity in Australia, particularly in
children.
Contact us
Obesity Policy Coalition
100 Drummond St, Carlton, Victoria, Australia, 3053
Phone (03) 9635 5227, Fax (03) 9635 5360
Website: www.opc.org.au
Email: opc@opc.org.au
For media enquiries contact Rebecca Cook on
0438 316 435 or 03 9635 5207
Updated April 2011.