New bans urged as UK children see 12 TV junk-food ads per hour
Children as young as four view as many as 12 advertisements for junk food per hour while watching family television shows, according to research by Liverpool University and commissioned by the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA). Current rules, instituted a decade ago by regulator Ofcom, ban ads for foods high in fat, sugar and salt from being shown in or around children’s programmes, or shows for which 75% of the audience will be children. The OHA has called for the ban to be extended to all broadcasts before 9pm.

Children are seeing as many as 12 advertisements for junk food within an hour while watching family television shows such as The Voice, new research has revealed on Tuesday.

Children as young as four are seeing ads for pizza, burgers, sweets and biscuits in breaks during shows on ITV, C4 and E4 such as Hollyoaks and The Simpsons, Liverpool University researchers found.

The findings have led to renewed calls from health experts to ministers to toughen up rules restricting the broadcast of adverts for foods high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS), which they claim are “not fit for purpose”.

Dr Emma Boyland and Dr Rosa Whalen, from Liverpool University’s appetite and obesity research group, found that a half-hour episode of Hollyoaks on E4 in February – seen by 140,225 children – contained no fewer than nine adverts for such products. They included promotions of McDonald’s bacon double clubhouse burger, Domino’s chicken strippers and their pepperoni passion pizza, Oreo thins biscuits and Haribo sweets.

An episode of The Voice the next day on ITV watched by 708,500 children featured 12 ads for HFSS foods, including Domino’s pizzas, McVitie’s chocolate digestive nibbles and Anchor spreadable butter.

Part of a Domino’s pizza TV advert. Photograph: YouTube

“This report is another grim reminder why we’re losing the fight against the scourge of childhood obesity,” said Prof Mary Fewtrell, nutrition lead at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

“Children are very impressionable and need protection from the hundreds of millions of pounds spent each year on junk food advertising, much of which is within the family viewing hours of 6-9pm.”

Under current rules, put in place a decade ago by the broadcasting regulator Ofcom, adverts for HFSS foods are banned from being shown in or around children’s programmes or any programme where 75% of the audience will be children.

But the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA), which commissioned the new study, said children were still being exposed to adverts for unhealthy foods because no such restrictions apply to shows aimed at adults but watched by many under-18s. It wants the ban extended to everything shown before the 9pm watershed.

“We know brand recognition influences children’s behaviours from as young as 18 months, which is why the government saw it fit to ban junk food advertising during children’s shows back in 2010,” added Fewtrell.

Caroline Cerny, the OHA’s lead, said: “The rules to protect children from junk food advertising in the UK are 10 years old. They weren’t strong enough then and they are definitely not fit for purpose now, as they only cover 27% of children’s viewing time.” Three-quarters of adverts during The Voice would be banned if Ofcom changed the rules, the OHA said.

ITV said the Ofcom rules do not need to be extended. “There is already a robust system of regulation in place in the UK to restrict both the content and scheduling of advertising for food high in fat, salt or sugar, to children and young people, which is enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority, is endorsed by Ofcom and is rigorously applied by ITV across all of its platforms,” said a spokesman for the broadcaster.

The government ruled out any change. “Current advertising restrictions in the UK on junk food are among the toughest in the world, including a ban on advertising junk food in children’s media.”

Labour pledged that it would ban all junk food advertising before the 9pm watershed if it was elected.