Fat-fight MP plans Happy Meal ban
SUNDAY , 30 APRIL 2006
By GREG MEYLAN
MPs are considering tough new regulations on food advertising aimed at children - laws which would effectively ban a kiddies' favourite, McDonald's Happy Meals.
The health select committee begins its inquiry next month and its chairwoman, Green MP Sue Kedgely, said she would welcome a ban on promotional toys, used by companies such as McDonald's and Burger King to entice children and generate "pester power" for parents.
"It is a very blatant example of how food companies directly target children... Getting rid of toys is a little step in the right direction," Kedgely said.
She said the health committee would look not only at the extent of the obesity epidemic and its impact on the health system but at other ways of tackling the problem, including regulation.
National Party MP and committee member Dr Jackie Blue expected the issue of advertising to be contentious, but said it would be given serious consideration.
Blue said she had an open mind on regulation and banning toys, such as those given away with McDonald's Happy Meals.
"We need to make some really good recommendations, we need to turn this around because we cannot afford these rising levels of obesity as a country."
One in 10 Kiwi children is obese and one in five overweight, and the numbers are steadily rising.
The possible introduction of strict laws to protect children reflects thinking across the Tasman.
Last week, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Australia's food and marketing industry had drawn up a draft set of changes to its code prohibiting the use of personalities or promotional toys.
The suggested changes are seen as an attempt to head off threats of stricter legislation and maintain self-regulation of advertising standards, as happens here.
But Fight the Obesity Epidemic spokeswoman Dr Robyn Toomath said self-regulation was not working in New Zealand.
She said recent changes to the advertising code drawn up by the Advertising Standards Authority, the industry's self regulatory body, were "pathetic".
The changes mean the food industry cannot use sports stars and celebrities to market unhealthy food to children. But toys and promotions were considered to be marketing, not advertising, and did not fall under ASA's ambit.
Toomath said tobacco-like restrictions needed to be placed on marketing the "calorie rich, nutrient poor" products of the fast food industry to children.
"The idea is not to control advertising, it is to have people consume less food," she said.
Toomath said promotions encouraging extra consumption, such as two-for-one deals, should also be banned.
McDonald's New Zealand spokeswoman Joanna Redfern-Hardisty said the company recognised the need to advertise responsibly, and followed regulations.
The call for regulation comes at the same time a version of Eric Schlosser's bestselling expose of the fast food industry, Fast Food Nation, is released for children and teenagers.
The book, Chew On This, will be in bookshops in July.
On Thursday morning, McDonald's adverts appeared four times between 6.30am and 9am on TV3 and three times on TV2, during children's cartoons.
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