The kids' food campaign

From breakfast to bedtime, children are being bombarded with a range of increasingly sophisticated marketing tactics encouraging them to eat foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar. In some cases, parents may be totally unaware that their children are even being targeted.

A growing problem

Pester power makes it hard for parents to get their kids to eat well

One in three children in England are classified as either overweight or obese, and things are going to get worse. The Government’s Foresight Report recently predicted that, by 2050, 70% of girls and 55% of boys will be obese or overweight, and the cost of this rise in the overall population will reach £45.5bn a year.

The incidence of Type 2 diabetes will have increased by 70%, strokes by 30% and coronary heart disease by 20%. It's clear that urgent action needs to be taken.

Parents are concerned

Our latest research shows that consumers support our campaign:

• 83% of consumers think that irresponsible marketing of unhealthy foods makes it harder to encourage children to eat a healthy diet
• 84% think the Government needs to do more to control the way unhealthy foods are marketed to children
• 80% want a ban on TV adverts for unhealthy foods during times when children watch in the greatest numbers

Which? wants

• The Government to introduce a 9.00 pm watershed for adverts of foods high in fat, sugar and salt to children
• The Government to introduce restrictions covering the wide range of non-broadcast methods, such as product packaging, sponsorship and the internet, that target unhealthy food to children
• The food industry to stop marketing unhealthy foods to children

Responsible marketing

We see responsible marketing as part of the solution to making healthy choices easier for parents.

The Government has introduced restrictions to stop unhealthy food adverts on TV but Which? research shows that these do not cover the programmes that children watch the most.

The Government has challenged industry to tighten marketing codes for food promoted to children and rules have been introduced to protect younger children, including ruling out the use of popular characters in non-broadcast advertisements aimed at primary and pre-school children

However, the guidelines don't cover important kinds of promotion such as packaging and company websites, and the restrictions for older children are too vague to carry much force. More about the CAP announcement.

We will continue to put pressure on the Government to tighten the current self-regulatory codes for food marketing to children and to keep its promise to legislate if these codes fail. See the joint letter below for more detail on the response of Which? and other concerned organisations to the CAP code.

Resources

Joint letter on the CAP Code (PDF: 103Kb)

26 April 2007

Which? joint letter to Caroline Flint, Minister for Public Health, highlighting the missed opportunity of the Committee of Advertising Practice new rules.

Food Fables report (PDF: 809Kb)

22 November 2006

Which? explodes the industry myths on responsible food marketing to children.

 

Childcatchers - the tricks used to push unhealthy food to your children  (PDF: 385Kb)

01 January 2006

Exposes the most common marketing techniques used to promote foods high in fat, sugar and salt to kids.

Shark tales and incredible endorsements (PDF: 290Kb)

01 February 2005

Which? report revealing how characters loved and trusted by children are used to manipulate food choices and sell foods which are high in fat, sugar or salt.

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