February 24 2012 Children Still See Food Images Despite Ban Last
year, the British government passed regulations banning the
advertising of foods high in fat, salt and sugar during
children's programming. Ostensibly, regulators were trying to
keep children from seeing this food, the thought being that the
images shown on television were encouraging kids to eat
unhealthy food. Now, a new study out of Newcastle University
shows just how effective these bans have been. The research
shows that 6 percent of advertisements seen by children were
about "junk" food before the ban. After the ban was implemented,
that figure went up to seven percent. Nice work, regulators.
This effort is afoot here in the United States. Last year, four
federal agencies developed plans to regulate what food can be
advertised during children's programming. Currently, those
agencies are reworking their recommendations (after public
outcry) but there's no doubt that the Obama administration will
try to stop food companies from advertising t