More than a quarter of all secondary school pupils are clinically obese and experts are predicting a "public health timebomb". Is it time to bank junk food adverts? What else can be done?
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It's funny, my sister is doing a degree in food marketing and I was helping her word an essay on the ethics of marketing communication in the food industry.
She'd written about McDonalds and i really hadn't realised how bad their advertising was when aimed at kids!!
Loads of guidelines from the ASA have been put in place though, and I don't think they should be banned, neither should junk foods.
They're not the primary cause of obesity, it's the fact that kids demand and buy junk food and eat it everyday while playing on computer games and being less active.
Smoking adverts on TV were banned and there's still a whole load of people that puff on those death sticks.
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Morgan Spurlock's "Supersize Me" was given away with Saturday's Guardian.
I played it to my 9 year old daughter who was equally fascinated and disgusted.
I hope the message sticks.
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Chris wrote:
They're not the primary cause of obesity, it's the fact that kids demand and buy junk food and eat it everyday while playing on computer games and being less active.
half the time though its the parents that need educating and not the kids. lazyness causes obesity, they should take the time to make food fun whjen they are younger and make it less of a chore eating healthy.
Hmmm pot calling kettle black there as I typed that I realised I must do more of this with my little un !
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Good article on McD's in the guardian today - something like 90% of food bought is processed (approx ?45bn worth)
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The wrote:
Morgan Spurlock's "Supersize Me" was given away with Saturday's Guardian.
I played it to my 9 year old daughter who was equally fascinated and disgusted.
I hope the message sticks.
That documentary annoyed me.
The message most people got from it was, if you eat mcdonalds every day you get fat. Which in essence is true, if all you do is drive round in a car a munch on Mcdonalds in front of a camera.
Does anyone remember the follow up hit back documentary supersize she?
Point of that docmentary was to show that eating at mcdonalds sensibly and having an active lifestyle didn't lead to weight gain.
It's not the food it's as BFG says, laziness in parents and children to not lead active and healthy lifestyles.
Although, McDonalds advertising and branding has a lot to answer for :-)
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