Tag Archive for: junk food advertising

Junk Food Ads Are Still Targeting Kids of Colour

Vice

For Black and Latino communities that already have higher rates of diabetes and obesity, fast-food advertising adds another layer to health inequities that can become intergenerational. “For underserved populations like African Americans and Latino Americans, we see a lot more patients with family members who struggle with weight-related conditions,” says Dr. Veronica Johnson of Northwestern Medicine. Read more

Heavy opposition to London’s junk food ad ban uncovered

Sustainweb. org 

New research from the University of Bath reveals that companies mounted strong opposition behind the scenes to the London policy to restrict advertising for high fat, salt and sugar products across the transport network. Companies opposed the policy through official channels as well as trying to influence through more direct approaches such as informal calls. In one case, KFC invited a Childhood Obesity Taskforce member on a ‘magical mystery tour’ of London eateries and a tour of Brixton. Read more

Bite Back 2030 – a youth led campaign against junk food – team up with Dulwich Hamlet Football Club 

Brixton Buzz 

As part of their campaign to end the link between junk food advertising and sport Bite Back has teamed up with the club to set an example to others of what can be done to promote child health instead. The deal was announced after a summer working hard to highlight the extent to which sport is being used to give junk food a starring role in children’s minds, from Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of the Olympics to the cricket Hundred, where the players are dressed up as giant crisp packets. Read more

 

School routes swimming in junk food ads

Medical Xpress
A study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health revealed that of the 4016 advertisements observed along 7 bus, walking and train routes to 4 Perth high schools almost half were for food and 80 percent advertised junk food.  Only 8 per cent advertised healthy foods. Read more

Adolescents bombarded with junk food marketing on social media 

Medical Xpress
According to new research from the University of Wollongong, for every hour that an Australian child spends online on their phone, they view more than 17 food and drink ads, a figure that is almost nine times higher than their exposure via tv advertising. Associate Professor Bridget Kelly, the lead researcher on the study, said the rate of promotion for unhealthy food was 50 times higher than the rate for healthier products. Read more

Skipping a trip to the grocery store may lead to fewer junk food purchases

CNN 

Study participants who ordered their groceries online spent less money on junk food compared to when they shopped in person, according to a study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. Lead study author Laura Zatz, a senior adviser at The Behavioural Insights Team, said “Online shopping allows shoppers to avoid abundant in-store marketing and enticing food stimuli, which encourages us to add items to our basket that we didn’t plan to purchase,” she said. Read more…

What is driving Australians’ unhealthy food habits

Medical Xpress

A new online tool brings together the best available data to describe Australia’s food environments, providing a clear picture of the ways that environment drives people, including children, to consume too many of the wrong types of foods. Australian children see more than twice as many ads for unhealthy food compared to healthy food on TV. And when kids are on their mobile devices, they are hit with as many as ten unhealthy foods and drink ads every hour. Read more

You can find the dashboard at https://foodenvironmentdashboard.com.au

Study exposes cognitive vulnerabilities to soft drink advertisements

News Medical Life Sciences 
A new study from Flinders University, published in Appetite, found participants who found it difficult to resist sweet drinks compared to non-sweetened control beverages (e.g., water) – were more responsive to the ads than those without these tendencies. The Australian study compared the ability of 127 university-age students (18-25 year olds) to withstand or succumb to the urge to reach for a soft drink when viewing television advertisements. Read more

Fears junk food regulation chilled by free trade agreements

Stuff NZ 

International free-trade agreements threaten to put a “chill” on junk food regulations, experts in NZ say as efforts to combat child obesity have stalled. Global obesity expert Boyd Swinburn, a professor of population nutrition and global health at the University of Auckland, said the trade agreements came through a “very undemocratic, non-transparent process”, and that the law needed to be strengthened so that public health was not badly affected by free-trade agreements. Read more

What Are We Feeding Our Kids? review – junk food exposé will leave you queasy 

The Guardian

In What Are We Feeding Our Kids?, Dr. Chris van Tulleken looks into the health effects – particularly for children – of the increasing consumption of ultra-processed food. It costs twice as much to get 100 calories from fresh fruit, vegetables and fish in the UK as it does to get them from readymade food.  Tim Rycroft, the chief operating officer of the Food and Drink Federation, gives the standard line about needing to ensure people are empowered to make “good choices”. Van Tulleken pushes back about how much choice there is in an environment where everything – availability, price, marketing and so on – is designed to push the consumer one way. Read more