Call to outlaw junk food ads in magazines
(Daily Mail Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) ADVERTS for junk food could be banned from newspapers, magazines, cinemas and websites as part of a radical drive to tackle the obesity crisis.
Text message advertising could also be limited under a code of conduct being thrashed out with food manufacturers.
The Government has already demanded a clampdown on television advertising of unhealthy food and drink, but is concerned manufacturers may simply use other types of media.
'We have to look at both sides of the coin,' said public health minister Caroline Flint.
'If we don't do something about this, we will have one million children obese, costing the health service between GBP3.3billion and GBP3.7billion a year.' Supermarket giants may also be enlisted, with chains encouraged to offer extra loyalty card points to customers who buy healthy foods.
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Foods likely to be hit by the advertising ban include sweet popcorn, crisps such as Walkers and Wotsits, chocolate bars such as KitKat and roasted and salted nuts.
Such changes would be a hammerblow to big brands such as McDonald's, KFC, Walkers, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Kellogg's and Nestle.
The television ban is likely to cost commercial channels up to GBP 140million a year.
But the Food Standards Agency said earlier this week that drastic action was needed to protect children up to the age of 15 from being bombarded with commercials.
It wants all advertising of foods high in fat, salt and sugar prohibited before the 9pm TV watershed.
The watchdog is backed by the National Heart Forum, an alliance of food, health and consumer groups including the British Medical Association, the British Heart Foundation, the National Union of Teachers and Which?
Ofcom, the TV and communications regulator, is in favour of a less severe system, which would see the commercials only pulled from children's programmes.
It says the wider ban would damage its ability to finance good quality shows for youngsters.
And the Food Advertising Unit, which represents advertisers and food companies, says a pre-9pm ban would be 'totally disproportionate', with advertising having only a ' modest effect' on children' s appetites.
The Government, which has the final say on the scope of the limits, will be accused of putting commerce before children's health if it sides with Ofcom.
Miss Flint, however, told a seminar organised by the Leftwing thinktank the Fabian Society that she believed the television ban may not go far enough.
She said 15 per cent of Britain's five million children aged between two and 11 were obese - and a similar number were overweight.
'There was a time when an eight or nine-year-old said the best present they could want was a bicycle, but now it is more likely to be a new PlayStation.
That is the reality,' she added.
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