Lobby your MP for Children’s Food Campaign

April 9, 2008

Childrens Food CampaignA News Update from the Children’s Food Campaign including a plea to LOBBY your MP to protect children from junk food advertising.

Support grows among MPs for the Food Products (Marketing to Children) Bill

Writing to your MP about the Bill is the one most effective thing you can do to help protect children from junk food advertising, and will take no longer than five minutes.

Pressure is growing on MPs to attend the Second Reading of the Food Products (Marketing to Children) Bill. The Bill will protect children from all forms of junk food marketing, whether via TV, the internet or packaging.

Thanks to all the support we have received from our members and from national organisations in the fields of health, consumer rights and children’s welfare, Early Day Motion 445 which calls for an end to unhealthy food marketing has now been signed by over 190 MPs.

With just over two weeks to go until the Bill’s Second Reading, we now urgently need more MPs to agree to attend. Many MPs have committed to supporting the Bill when it enters Parliament, and many more have expressed interest.

But for the Food Products (Marketing to Children) Bill to succeed, we need a hundred MPs to turn up and support it. That is why we are asking you if you haven’t already, to write to your MP asking them to attend the Reading. There’s a template letter you may want to use at http://www.sustainweb.org/childrensfoodcampaign/

Several MPs have told us that they are attending after being contacted by a constituent, so your letters really do make a difference.

You can find out who your local MP is by logging on to: www.writetothem.com.

More evidence that TV ad regulations are failing children

Programmes with the most child viewers are not covered by current rules on junk food advertising, a survey has found. Out of 20 of the programmes most watched by children, only one is covered by Ofcom restrictions on junk food advertising.

The survey, carried out in January by consumer protection body Which? found that advertisers were free to broadcast junk food adverts in all but one of the programmes with the highest number of children in the audience.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of programmes surveyed did carry adverts for foods high in salt, fat and sugar.

The current regulations are deeply flawed, as they classify programmes using the proportion of children in the audience, rather than the absolute number of children in the audience. This means that The Simpsons, with a child audience of less than 400,000, is covered by restrictions. However, ‘family’ programmes such as Dancing on Ice, with more than a million child viewers, are not.

The survey shows that current regulations are clearly failing to protect children, and highlights the urgent need for a 9 pm watershed. Ofcom’s current regulations on TV junk food advertising were designed as a fudge between children’s health and the economic interests of the industry. We continue to argue that children’s health should come first.

More children are watching junk food adverts despite television restrictions

Research from the Department of Health show that the number of times that children watch TV junk food adverts has risen by 26% in the last two years.

Dr Will Cavendish, Director of Health and Wellbeing at the Department of Health, described the figures as ‘worrying.’ “We know large numbers of children are still seeing TV ads for high fat, sugar and salt food and drink, though in programmes not specifically aimed at children”, he wrote, and advised ministers to take tougher action at a time when almost a third of 11 year olds are classified as overweight or obese.

By passing Nigel Griffith’s bill, MPs will be able to tackle the rising number of TV adverts for junk food that children are exposed to, as well as ending the barrage of junk food adverts in non-broadcast media.

www.independent.co.uk/news/media/more-children-are-watching-junkfood-adverts-despite-ban-805395.html

The food industry fights back

Following the success of EDM 445 which supports protecting children from junk food advertising, the Food and Drink Federation have fought back.

The FDF, a trade body which exists to protect the interests of food manufacturers, have introduced their own EDM opposing further restrictions on junk food advertising.

However, EDM 963 isn’t doing too well at the moment, and to date has gathered a grand total of 7 signatures. Two signatures are from MPs, who have also signed EDM 445 supporting restrictions on junk food advertising.

The EDM is also signed by Derek Conway, the disgraced MP who was suspended from Parliament for paying his son an excessive salary as a researcher.

Filed Under Campaigns, Food & Drink, Green Lifestyle 

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