At Least One Thing Seems To Unite European And American Lawmakers When It Comes To Television –Those Unhealthy Food Ads Targeted At Kids Need Restrictions, But Voluntary or Legislation?

Global television makes a fortune – in the US around $3 billion a year -- from its children’s programming – more accurately from the food advertising targeted at kids in that programming. But with so many nutritionists complaining that most of those foods targeted at kid are “unhealthy”, and the number of people now called obese, particularly in the young increasing, the cost of health treatment going up and up and it is an easy target for legislators to pounce on.

So even when a government independent TV regular such as the UKs OFCOM (Office of Communications) drew up proposals for what it considered pretty draconian rules to ban unhealthy food ads aimed at the under 16s, but not banning all such food ads before 9 p.m. because it figured that would be financially unhealthy to the commercial TV industry and it wanted to hit that fine line between having healthy kids and financially healthy commercial TV, it was somewhat surprised by how vociferous groups were that it didn’t go far enough and that legislation is now being introduced in Parliament.

Baroness Thornton, from the ruling Labor Party, has proposed the Television Advertising (Food) Bill that would stop all television advertising of foods high in fat, salts and sugar (HFSS) before 9 p.m. (the time when at least the younger kids should be safely tucked away in bed). Health campaigners are busy lining up political support for tough measures and consumer magazine Which? basically summed up their general view: “Parents are fed up with junk food advertising on TV that undermines their efforts to give their children a balanced diet. A 9 p.m. watershed is the only way to stop unhealthy foods being advertised during the times most children are watching TV.”

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UK Commercial Cable and Terrestrial Networks Say Outlook For Kids TV Programming Bleak As British Regulator Proposes Junk Food Ad Ban In Move That Will Cost Millions In Lost Revenue
Obesity is considered the number one growth disease in Europe, and it is getting worse the most in the under 16s. Could all those junk foods high in fat, salt and sugar that are heavily advertised in TV programs aimed at the under 16s be a contributing cause? The UK TV regulator thinks so, and has shocked commercial broadcasters by wanting to ban such ads aimed at kids starting in January.

Tom and Jerry Are Going To Quit Smoking For The Most Part, Courtesy of Turner Broadcasting and the British Broadcast Regulator, But All That Violence In Those Same Cartoons – That Stays
Turner Broadcasting knows a good PR opportunity when it sees it for its Boomerang cartoon cable network. When a woman complained to the British TV regular that smoking in two Tom and Jerry cartoons was bad for the health of tiny viewers, the broadcaster responded it would remove from those two cartoons any smoking that appeared to be condoned, acceptable, or where it could encourage imitation.

With Obesity on the Increase, European Countries Target Food Advertising, Especially That Aimed at Kids, While Food Manufacturers Greatly Increase Their Spend to Promote Healthy Food
Food advertising in France next year must contain a health warning against high fat or sugar content or the manufacturer could face a 1.5% tax on its advertising spend.

Food Ads Under Attack Again: New Survey Says Kids Think “Fat-Free” and “Diet” Are Synonymous with “Nutritious”
As the food industry globally works on self-regulations in advertising various fatty or salty foods to the under 12s, a new survey has come along suggesting certain buzz words like “fat-free” and “diet” need to be fully explained, or not used, since kids equate those words with healthy foods.

Junk Food Joins Alcohol and Tobacco as TV Advertising NO-Go Areas
The reason we and our kids are fat is because we succumb to all that junk food advertising on television instead of eating healthy nutritional salads, vegetables and the like. Actually, it’s not our fault as parents; it’s the kids fault since they are the ones who after watching all those television ads directed at them are dragging us to those fast-food outlets

And then there is the European Parliament that has passed a resolution proposing a seven-step program to fight obesity (some 27% of men and 38% of women in the EU are obese, not including the 5 million children,) and one of those steps is a dire warning that TV food campaigns aimed at children need to be more closely managed, perhaps with a revision of the EU-wide “TV without frontiers” directive.

The food industry is beginning to get the message and whereas previously it talked a lot about a voluntary code but did little about it the industry is now rushing to show what good corporate citizens they are in the hope of fending off legislation. Just last week Masterfoods, maker of Mars Bars and Snickers, reversed a position taken only six weeks earlier on why, as posted on its web site, it thought OFCOM’s proposal was all wrong. It now says it will ban marketing its candy to children under the age of 12. It joins an illustrious list of names such as Coca-Cola, Cadbury, Kraft, Burger King, McDonalds, KFC in limiting their under-12 advertising.

And now in the US, with candidates already announcing for the 2008 Presidential election, the one thing they all can cling onto is protecting the nation’s kids from obesity and “unhealthy” TV ads, yet how to do that without offending those very sponsors who could be big financial campaign contributors? One way is to convene this week on Valentine “Candy” Day no less, a meeting involving Federal Communications Chairman (FCC) chairman Kevin Martin, US Republican Presidential candidate Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, with various marketers, media companies, health groups, consumer groups advertisers and TV companies.

It’s billed as “a bipartisan effort to provide a forum for the public and private sectors to jointly examine the impact of media on childhood obesity and to explore voluntary recommendations that will address the alarming rise in childhood obesity rates.” Or in simple English, how can the problem be handled voluntarily without the politicians having to choose between campaign funds and unhealthy kids.

Senator Hilary Clinton back in 2005 told the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation, “We are conducting an experiment on this generation of children, and we have no idea what the outcomes are going to be.” She has joined Brownback in proposing a National Institute of Health study program of the effects of the media on children, but to the health campaigners these are all delay fudges to dodge offending these large lobby groups.

If the politicians really want a study they need look no further than one by Harvard University in 2005 that concluded that about 70 percent of the ads children see on television are for HFSS food products, and that, on average, children eat about 170 more calories per day for each hour of television they watch, and all of those calories are derived from foods commonly advertised in television commercials.

The issue really goes further than just television. Those food marketers have very savvy marketing departments and that means they use the Internet combined with their TV campaigns. How is that going to be controlled? According to the same Kaiser Foundation that Sen. Clinton spoke to, some 85% of the major food brands in the US who target kids with TV ads also use branded websites in their campaigns, about three-quarters of which use games to attract their young audiences. Take a look and it’s hard to tell where the ad ends and the game begins, or vice versa. It’s more like a blend.

Advertising aimed at US kids is thought to be about a $17 billion business and it is estimated that about 20% of that goes on television. So even plugging that hole still leaves all those toys, books, clothing, electronics, entertainment, etc., out there.

There are lobby groups on the other side also trying to get legislation and make it hard for candidates to avoid obesity in children as a major US campaign issue. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine last week asked the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to follow the UK’s OFCOM with a similar TV ban, particularly targeting cheese (think: pizza). The physicians say, for instance, that 73% of cheddar cheese gets its calories from fat and that is not acceptable for TV kids advertising.

Kraft, a big cheese maker, is one of 11 major food makers (Masterfoods joined their ranks this week, too) that have signed-up to a Council of Better Business Bureaus and the National Advertising Review Council program that pledges that 50% of their advertising aimed at kids under 12 will promote “healthy dietary choices and healthy lifestyles.” Is that another way of saying that 50% of their advertising will be for products unhealthy for kids and the kids will then be left to decide for themselves whether to eat healthy or unhealthy? Those 11 companies make up two-thirds of the food and beverage ads aimed at kids.

One thing the lawmakers and marketers cannot deny are the government statistics that show the number of overweight and obese American children has doubled in the past 20 years. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that 17% of American children between the ages of 2 – 19 are overweight, the 2-11 year-olds doing the worse. It means the new generation is in worse shape than their parents were, and there are no signs it will get any better for the generation yet to come.

The FTC, like the FCC, has gone on record saying it would like to see the advertising industry self-regulate – in other words if government doesn’t have to do the “dirty” and offend all of those campaign contributors then so much the better. That position is also supported by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA).

A lawyer for the AAAA says that the meeting this week “has all the signs of enlightened policymaking.” Enlightened for the politicians, or for the kids?

Sometimes one has to wonder whether the senior executives of those companies don’t have children or grandchildren under 12 who are affected by all this. Where do they draw that financial line between making money and what is healthy for their own families, or are they the enlightened ones who make sure that the TV is left off during the day?

US Taskforce Given Until July For Proposal How To Stem TV Ads Promoting Obesity - March 26, 2007

“We need a plan of action. The last thing we need is another report.” That comment by FCC Commissioner Michael Copps basically summed up the first marketers/media companies task force meeting targeting what to do about television advertising that promotes childhood obesity.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said it was no longer a national problem. He called is a “national crisis”.

Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate said she would like to see advertising aimed at children to promote healthful foods and products.

The task force, formed by US Senators Sam Brownback and Tom Harkin, and the FCC commissioners told the task force made up of many of the big names in food, broadcast, and health, to come up with a plan of action by July. Noting that 19% of US kids are overweight, Sen. Brownback warned, “That’s just unacceptable. We must take responsible action to protect the nation’s children.”

Ofcom Makes It Official – Junk Food Ad Ban To Begin For Some TV Programs By April - February 24, 2007

The UK’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) has announced that from April 1 it is banning junk food ads aimed at children between the ages of 7 to 9, and by Jan.1, 2008 for such ads aimed at children aged under 16 and by the end of 2008 on dedicated children’s channels.

And if that was not difficult enough for the food industry to digest the government now says it wants to see similar bans introuced for non-broadcast media. The health minister, Caroline Flint, said, "We now look to the Committee of Advertising Practice to put in place similar rules for other media such as cinema, magazines and the internet.”

The Committee for Advertising Practice is the food the industry's self-regulatory body.

"We will be monitoring closely the impact of Ofcom's measures in order to see whether there is going to be a real change in the nature and balance of food promotion," added Ms Flint.

"An interim review will be conducted in 2007, and we will work on a more detailed review of all media in 2008. On that basis, the government will decide whether or not future action (legislation) is required."

UK Government To Propose Banning Ads for Junk Food Aimed At The Under 16s From Magazines, Billboards, And At The Movies - February 21, 2007

Having already taken aim at junk food TV advertising on which it can mandate, the UK government is now working on a scheme to ban similar advertising on the same grounds aimed at the under 16s in magazines, at the movies, on billboards, even on junk food company Internet sites targeting the young.

The ban would have to be voluntary since there is no official press regulator as there is for television, not that the government doesn’t have ways of influence.

Further Complicated: Advertising, Children and Television NEW