New research from the University of Liverpool shows that food ads significantly increase children’s food consumption.
The deleterious impact of food advertising on children is once again demonstrated. This is indeed what a study from the University of Liverpool (United Kingdom) suggests. Work published this Friday in theAmerican Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
British researchers reviewed and analyzed 22 studies that investigated the effects of food advertising on the consumption of viewers and Internet users.
During these studies, children and / or adults were thus exposed to advertisements extolling the merits of sugary and / or fatty products, either on television or on the internet. Each study then measured the amount of food consumed after exposure to the advertisements. The researchers compared these results to a group of people who had not seen these ads.
On TV or on the internet
And like a similar study (conducted at Yale University) published earlier this month, the results are final. Scientists observed that “while food ads did not increase food consumption in adults, they significantly increased consumption in children.” The data show, moreover, that exposure to these spots on TV, or on the internet, produced the same effect.
Study author Dr Emma Boyland explains that analysis of these studies showed that “food advertising not only has effects on brand choices, but encourages consumption.” She is therefore worried about children “given the daily exposure of a majority of children to many pubs concerning junk food”.
And the doctor does not hesitate to criticize food marketing: “Small cumulative increases in energy intake have led to the current epidemic of childhood obesity, and food marketing plays a major role in this.” Finally, she also regrets that “the effects are not limited to TV ads, online marketing by food and drink brands is now well established and has a similar impact.”
Dr Boyland therefore strongly advises parents to limit the exposure of younger children to these advertisements.
France: ads removed from children’s programs
An ad for milk chocolate between two cartoons on France 2? It’s finish. On January 13, MEPs voted to remove advertising from children’s programs broadcast on public service television channels. The text, passed in extremis, could only be adopted because of the chronic absenteeism of deputies to the National Assembly.
Only the Greens, carriers of the text, indeed came en masse to vote for the deletion, against the advice of the government and the PS group, opposed to this reform. For several months, the latter have been busy emptying the text of its substance during parliamentary debates, highlighting a loss of revenue estimated at 20 million euros for France Televisions.
In concrete terms, however, the measure should enter into force on January 1, 2018. It provides for the elimination of commercial advertising during programs on public channels intended for children under 12, as well as during the 15 minutes preceding and following them. “Youth suffers physically and psychologically from overexposure to advertising messages,” defended environmentalist Michèle Bonneton.
Junk food: When advertising promotes overweight in children https://t.co/6FWI7G5jSn #health #obesity pic.twitter.com/q9Drrq0KJN
– Pourquoidocteur (@Pourquoidocteur) January 17, 2016
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