FEATURE OVEREXPOSED TO UNHEALTHY ADS
Overexposed to unhealthy ads S
INCE 2007, FOOD and drink products that are high in fat, sugar or salt have been banned from being advertised during television programmes that
are aimed at children. There has recently been discussion about whether these restrictions should be extended to ban advertising of foods high in fat, sugar and salt during all television broadcasting before the 9pm watershed. Restricting advertising is one of many policies
that have been either introduced or discussed as a way to deal with rising rates of obesity and diet- related disease. Research by Public Health England finds that one in three children are overweight or obese by the time that they leave primary school, and obesity prevalence is particularly high in the most deprived parts of the country. Obesity is associated with a number of poor health outcomes such as diabetes, heart disease and cancers. The fact that some of these costs are borne by wider society (eg, through an increased burden on the NHS), and that people may not fully take into account the future costs of poor diet, provides a rationale for government intervention.
Children’s exposure to advertising of food and drinks products by hour of day and advert type
2.5 “ 2.0
Restricting advertising of unhealthy foods is one policy to deal with rising rates of obesity and diet-related disease. But do advertising restrictions help tackle childhood obesity? By Rebekah Stroud, Institute for Fiscal Studies
There is concern that exposure to advertising of
unhealthy food and drinks leads individuals to over- consume such products, and that advertising has a particularly large influence on children who are less able to discern the persuasive intent of advertising.
Restrictions on advertising
might encourage companies to reformulate their products
1.5 1.0 0.5 0
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 1 2 3 4 5 Hour of the day
HFSS products Restaurants and bars Supermarket ranges Non-HFSS products
Note: HFSS refers to products high in fat, sugar or salt (those foods with a nutrient profile score equal to or above 4, and drinks with a score equal to or above 1). Impacts are a measure of the number of pairs of eyes that sees each given advert. For details of how adverts are categorised as for HFSS products, non-HFSS products, restaurants and bars, or supermarket ranges, see the IFS Briefing Note BN 238, ‘Children’s exposure to TV advertising of food and drink’
Source: Authors’ calculations using data from AC Nielsen, BARB data and the Kantar Worldpanel.
10 SOCIETY NOW AUTUMN 2018
The hope is that by restricting advertising of these products, consumption of unhealthy foods will fall. Children still see a large amount of television advertising for unhealthy food and drinks, despite the ban on advertising unhealthy foods during children’s programming. Recent research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies studied the amount of advertising that children saw for different food and drink at various times of the day. The figure below left shows how the amount of advertising that children saw for healthy and less healthy products or brands varied throughout the day, with the bar at 9pm indicating the watershed. Fifty per cent of the television advertising of food and drink that children saw was for less healthy products or brands – 39% of this was for food and drinks products that are high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS), and a further 11% was for restaurants and bars, most of which was for fast food restaurants such as McDonalds. The reason that children are still able to see this much advertising for less healthy food and drink products is that the current restrictions apply only to ‘children’s television’, which is defined as television on children’s channels or programmes where children make up at least 25% of the audience. This definition excludes some of the most popular shows among children, such as Britain’s Got Talent or X Factor. Indeed, despite attracting far more young viewers than Spongebob Squarepants, Horrid Henry or Peppa Pig (three of the top ‘children’s television’ shows in 2015), shows such as Britain’s Got Talent and X Factor are not subject to existing restrictions as they also attract a large number of adult viewers, meaning that the share of the audience made up by children was 13% for Britain’s Got Talent and 12% for X Factor in 2015. This has led to calls from health campaigners and leaders of all the main opposition parties for a ban on all television advertising of foods and drinks that are high in fat, sugar and salt prior to
”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40
