Which? Campaigns No advertising, no bias, no hidden agenda

About the Kids' food campaignHow can things improve?

Current restrictions aren't working

Bag of crisps

Our research shows people want the Government to do more to control food marketing

With junk food putting their children’s future at risk, it’s not surprising that many parents want change. Our research shows that 83% of consumers think irresponsible marketing of unhealthy foods makes it harder for kids to eat healthily, and that 84% think the Government should do more to control the way unhealthy foods are marketed to children.

We think so, too. To be fair, the Government has increased controls on junk food marketing on TV in recent years but our research shows the restrictions don't go far enough.

One of the advertising industry’s self-regulatory bodies, the Committee for Advertising Practice (CAP) has developed a new code which aims to control the advertising and promotion or foods to children across non-broadcast media.

Vague language

Despite being revised in April 2007, the protection offered to children by the code remains weak. Its language is vague and open to interpretation and the specific proposals only cover children of pre-school and primary age.

The code does not use the Government food regulator, the Food Standard Agency’s nutrient profiling model to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy foods and it allows advertisers to use branded characters like Frosties’ Tony the Tiger to promote unhealthy foods to children of all ages.

The guidelines developed by ISBA (the voice of British advertisers) on internet promotions are based on the same approach as the CAP code and so have the same problems.

Worryingly, there are no restrictions to cover the remaining areas of non-broadcast promotion – the retail environment, product packaging, sponsorship, editorial content, website content and vending. Responsibility for reviewing restrictions in these areas has been given to a range of groups, organisations and Ministers but we're still waiting to see decisive action.

The way forward

More needs to be done if we're to ensure that our kids have healthy, happy futures.

Which? wants:

  • The Government to extend the current Ofcom TV restrictions so that they cover the programmes that children watch in the greatest numbers
  • The Government to introduce restrictions covering the wide range of non-broadcast methods, such as product packaging, sponsorship and the internet, that are also used to target unhealthy food to children
  • All food companies to clean up their act and stop marketing unhealthy foods to children

You can play your part too, whether you're a parent or grandparent, or just worried that we're letting the country’s kids down.

Tell us your views on this issue and find out how you can encourage your kids to eat more healthily.