Sorry about the delay in getting back on this - few bits and bobs going on.
Anyway re the Lunchables ads, thank you for your thoughts and the research. In general our stance is that we'd rather not be the food police and make decisions about what people should and shouldn't be encouraged to feed their kids - think most folk have enough common sense to work out what's good for their kids or not and the odd lunchable/ sausage roll/ cheese string isn't really so bad, I'd imagine .
We agree however that disingenuous advertising is undesirable. From a practical point of view, however, it's fairly impossible for us to vet ads prior to booking as very often they aren't created at the time of booking nor, to be frank, do we have the resources/expertise to take a reliable for every potential ad campaign.
On balance we think the most practical way forward is, as has happened here, for folk to express any doubts on Talk - that way we can explore the arguments for and against. What we certainly will do is to let our agency know that we will not censor discussion of advertisers in any way, so advertisers on MN should be careful not to mislead as it will not go unremarked upon.
We do, as you know, have a list of disallowed advertisers mainly on ethical grounds - formula milk, Nestle, Macdonalds, plastic surgery types, political parties, porn sites and a few red-top newspapers. As always if you feel there are other companies/products that should go on the list, let us know.
Thanks again for the input,
M Towers