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Bad TV ads

How TV food advertising restrictions work

  • Find out which family TV shows featured ads for unhealthy foods
  • Latest research shows that current regulations are failing our children
  • How many of the top 20 programmes for under 16s are covered by the regulations?

Advertising to children

Two kids watching TV

Current rules don't cover the programmes that are most popular with children

If your children watch popular programmes such as Beat the Star or Animals do the funniest things, they could be watching ads for foods high in fat, sugar and salt.

Ofcom, the communications regulator, is reviewing  Government restrictions on TV advertising to children, but our research shows that companies are getting around the rules.

'Particular appeal'

Adverts for foods that are high in fat, salt or sugar are not permitted in or around programmes that have a ‘particular appeal’ to under-16s. But the problem lies with the definition.

At the moment, Ofcom makes judgements about a programme's appeal to kids based on the proportion of the audience that is younger than 16, rather than the actual number watching. So a programme with a large audience, such as Beat the Star, may actually be watched by more children than a programme like The Simpsons, yet not be covered by the rules.

We want to see the rules extended to cover the programmes that are most popular with children.

Top TV programmes

Our latest research looked at programmes with the largest under 16s audiences on ITV1, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky One from 9th June to 22nd June 2008.

None of the five most popular programmes were covered by the restrictions. Because of this, adverts for products such as Coca-Cola which contains 13 spoons of sugar per 500ml, and Kellogg's Coco Pops, which is over a third sugar, were shown.

Here's what we discovered about the three most-watched programmes:

Beat the Star

  • Watched by 532,300 under 16s
  • Adverts included: Coca-Cola, Kellogg's Rice Krispies, Kraft's Dairylea Dunkers Nachos, Maryland Chocolate Chip Cookies, Oreo Cookies and Sprite

Hulk (film, 2003)

  • Watched by 409,700 under 16s
  • Adverts included: Coca-Cola, Cadbury's Creme Egg Twisted, Kellogg's Coco Pops and Oreo Cookies

Animals do the funniest things

  • Watched by 370,600 under 16s
  • Adverts included: Cadbury's Creme Egg Twisted, Kraft's Dairylea Dunkers Nachos, Maryland Chocolate Chip Cookies, Starburst

The top 20

Amount of under 16s watching programmes with unhealthy food adverts
Rank Programme and ranking Under 16s watching Examples of foods high in fat, sugar and salt advertised
1 Beat the Star 532,300 Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s Rice Krispies, Kraft’s Dairylea Dunkers Nachos, Maryland Chocolate Chip Cookies, Oreo Cookies, Sprite
2 Film: Hulk (2003) 409,700 Coca-Cola, Cadbury’s Creme Egg Twisted, Kellogg’s Coco Pops, Oreo Cookies
3 Animals do the funniest things 370,600 Cadbury’s Creme Egg Twisted, Kraft’s Dairylea Dunkers Nachos, Maryland Chocolate Chip Cookies, Starburst
4 Emmerdale 369,800 Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s Coco Pops, Nestlé Cheerios, Sprite
5 My child won’t eat 331,900 Coca Cola, Nestlé’s Oat Cheerios
6 The Simpsonsa 328,000 n/a
7 Euro 2008 Live 321,300 Fanta, Starburst
8 Coronation Street 265,900 Coca Cola, Kellogg’s Coco Pops, Kraft’s Dairylea Dunkers Nachos, Maryland Chocolate Chip Cookies, Oreo Cookies
9 Superhuman: Britain’s biggest babies 258,500 McVities Go Ahead Yoghurt Breaks (plain)
10 Tonight with Trevor McDonald 255,800 Kellogg’s Coco Pops
11 10 years younger 250,900 Coca-Cola
12 The Bill 249,200 Dr Oetker Paula Dessert, Kellogg’s Coco Pops Kellogg’s Rice Krispies, Maryland Chocolate Chip Cookies
13 Film: Mr and Mrs Smith (2005) 247,200 Dr Oetker Paula Dessert, Maryland Chocolate Chip Cookies
14 Spongebob Squarepantsa 225,200 n/a
15 Shaggy and Scooby Doo get a cluea 217,900 n/a
16 Film: Bewitched 203,400 n/a
17 The Royal 182,200 Kellogg’s Coco Pops, Kellogg’s, Special K
18 Power Rangers operation overdrivea 182,000 n/a
19 Film: From Russia with love 180,000 Dr Oetker Paula Dessert, Kellogg’s Rice Krispies, Nabisco Oreo Cookies
20 F1: Grand Prix 177,100 Cadbury Creme Egg Twisted, Coca-Cola, Sprite

Table notes

  1. Covered by current Ofcom restrictions

Junk food marketing

If you're concerned about the influence of junk food marketing on your kids we've got more information to help:

  • Find out about techniques marketers use to target children
  • Read tips on how to encourage your kids to eat a healthy diet
  • Get in touch to tell us your views on kids food marketing
  • Learn about what we're doing on our Kids' food campaign

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