The Times-Colonist (Victoria, BC)
Trevor Hancock discusses the health impacts of poverty and inequality, and commercial activities like marketing to kids that harm children. Both were included in A Future for the World’s Children?, the February 2020 report from the WHO-UNICEF-Lancet Commission. Read the article here
Washington Post
Food giant Unilever has vowed to stop marketing its products to children by the end of this year in order to tackle rising obesity rates. The firm said it would limit the use of cartoon characters in its advertising and also promised to stop using social media stars or celebrities “who primarily appeal” to children under 12. Read the article.
Guelph Mercury
Canadian child health advocate, Zulfi Bhutta of Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, is among a team of global experts urging “a radical rethink” of how a warming planet, aggressive advertising and economic inequities pose an “immediate threat” to the health and well-being of young people worldwide. A report launched Wednesday by the World Health Organization, UNICEF and The Lancet concludes children face urgent peril from ecological degradation, climate change and aggressive marketing tactics that push heavily processed fast food, sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco. Read the article
Medical XPress
Seventy percent of teens surveyed report engaging with food and beverage brands on social media and 35 percent engaged with at least five brands, according to a new study from the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity published in the journal Appetite. The study found that 93 percent of the brands that teens reported engaging with on social media were fast food, unhealthy snack foods, candy, and sugary drinks. Read the article here
New York Times
Nearly two-thirds of the $2.2 billion in beverages marketed to children in 2018 contained added sweeteners, according to a report released last week by the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at the University of Connecticut. The report found that the packaging and marketing of these products often leave parents confused. Read the New York Times article here.
The Globe and Mail
Healio.com
“The evidence cited here shows that these marketing techniques, which remain prevalent, were specifically designed to attract children by blurring advertisement with entertainment content in a way that is now at odds with the terms of industry-led agreements” the study’s authors said. Read here…
The City Council passed a bill forcing restaurants to offer certain healthy beverages with kids’ meals. Read article here…
Vancouver Sun
The Globe & Mail