How fab is it that junk food ads have been banned from Childrens tv??!!!

[Carmenere]

I can't believe that no one has started a thread on this so far today. It is really really good news for our kids. I know it is not enough but it is a major step in the right direction.
Sweden banned junk food ads during childrens tv years ago and they have the lowest rate of childhood obesity in Europe.

I missed this thread on Friday but heard the news on the radio and I think it is a massive step that has been taken. Great news indeed.

But it is still your decision. As adults, do we buy everything that is targetted at us? No, so why is it so different when it comes to kid's stuff, particularly as we are the ones holding the purse strings?

Cigarettes are not advertised on TV but there is still a lot of underage smokers.

if you look at it this way, do you still want children's itv?? soon itv will just be full of gambling shows, which it is now late at night. sad.

my children watch the ads and never pester for cheese strings etc, it's the world we live in, advertising brings revenue which makes it possible to make the programmes.

No Batters, I don't believe it's going to act like a magic bullet, but it's one element among many which is making this country an environment inimical to healthy eating.
Some of these elements would be difficult to control governmentally, (eg it's much easier to buy a bag of crisps than an apple) others it would be too much infringement on people's civil liberties (eg people LIKE junk food so it would be wrong to ban them from eating it) - advertising to kids seems to be an area where a ban will help a bit and it's just about justifiable to interfere.

So what about children who watch programmes aimed at the older population? Surely they see the adverts with these programmes e.g. Walkers crips is advertised after 9pm as well as before.

Also, when children go shopping with their parents, will they to go round blindfolded so as not to see the forbidden food, toys etc?

oh for goodness sake. of course i can turn the tv off. of course i say no to ds (and actually i don't expose him to ads....i make sure that it's cbeebies or that the programme gets switched off when finished), he is of the impression that presents happen at birthday and christmas time and treats including those are not given if asked for as they are a surprise.

i'm much more concerned with the information that he is exposed to by watching ads. not that he will pester me to buy products. advertisements are insidious and malevolent. it bothers me a lot that a programming space that is exclusively for young children is bombarded with advertising aimed not at their parents but at them!

read No Logo someone fgs.

an eminently sensible post kathy.

well i just hope itv can find citv funding to make up the loss, or instead of children's tv, they'll have to watch re-runs of murder she wrote

i'm not stroppy batters (ooooo, who's the stroppy one?) i'm slightly exasperated that there are mothers (mothers!) that think this is less than a Very Good Thing.

I think its far less than a Very Good Thing

I think there's a helluva lot of expectation laid up with it .. .what difference will it make to ban advertising from programming your children are supposed to be watching WITH YOU anyway

they'll get it on the street, at POS, in comics and magazines, at school, on the way to school, at clubs, on the way to clubs

please tell me where do we stop

what about tesco vouchers for schools? or sainsbury's?

I think its far better to be able to teach your children about the pernicious aspects of advertising and learn to say NO

I'm slightly exasperated that its being treated like the 2nd coming TBH

twiglett, i don't have massive expectations of it, but still think it is a very good thing.

by your argument cigarette advertising on tv and near schools is fine....after all, they are exposed to cigarettes in life....right????

and yes i think it is a disaster that schools are underfunded enough to need supermarket branded campaigns in order to get sports equipment....i think it is an absolute tragedy and indictment of the totally insane consumerist society we live in that it's an accepted part of how we live....Tesco sponsored schooling....insane.

cigarettes vs children's toys

cigarettes vs McDonalds

hmmm ... let me see

..... actually Sophable I have more respect for my children's ability to be discerning and for my children's ability to discuss things and for their ability to take no for a bleedin' answer tbh

Sophable, I've not heard of the book "No Logo". Probably because it has been poorly advertised!

twiglett, how is not having junk food advertising in between toddler aimed television programmes going to adversely affect my ds's ability to be discerning

really don't get this argument at all.

branding is EVERYWHERE. isn't it a good thing that as a society we are deciding that there are some places it shouldn't be?

This is an interesting criticism of the "No Logo" book.

No Logo is copyrighted by Klein and was published by a corporation. However, there are future plans to put the book under a copyleft license. Additionally, companies have produced goods with a No Logo logo on them (other than her publications, Klein does not endorse nor profit from these products). These ironies have not escaped critics or even the webmasters of the No Logo franchise (who addressed it on their FAQ page).

how on earth is the fact that NoLogo has become a stealable brand anything other than confirmation of the observations that klein makes in that book? it's not a criticism speedy, it's an affirmation of the book's central argument.

I'm just not that worked up about it sophable .. sorry

I don't see it as a great big huge deal

but then my kids eat a wide range of foods including crap and organic and home-baked and shop bought and thai and indian and chocolate and lollipops and natural yogurt and carrots and ..blah blah .. well you get my drift

i'm not either. i don't expect it to change the world. but i think of it as a tiny step in the right direction tbh. and am surprised that you don't.....that's all.

it's a heartening thing rather than something to whoop about. and it certainly doesn't evoke a sadness that ITV will stop making children's programmes in me!!!

I don't know how long this will last but I seem to have programmed my child not to watch adverts. I've always said when they come on "Oh no its an advert how boring."
Yesterday watching Milkshake she said "I don't want to watch this adverts make me feel sick." I was so proud but believe me we are not a PC holier than tho family. My sole aim in implanting anti-adverts-feelings was to avoid having to buy a bratz baby doll.
There may be a fall-off in childrens' programming on channels other than the BBC as a result of the ban. However, given that the creators of such prorgrammes make vast amounts of money merchandising related products to children, which they wouldn't be able to do unless the programmes were on tv in the first place, I'm confident they'll find a way.
To be honest I don't care one way or another about the ban. I hate all adverts in childrens' programming, not just food ones. There are the dread bratz ads, then there are loud and scary ads that make your three year old fall out of his highchair, there are ads for violent toys, trainers and makeup, all aimed at littlies. And sometimes movie trailers. All awful and completely out of kilter with the safe (and oh how merchandised) world of fifi and the flowertots. Ban the bloody lot of them I say!!!