Australian children targeted with junk food advertising

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

==========================================================================================================

17th April 2007, Cambridge, England, UK & New York, USA

Forthcoming article in Public Health Nutrition calls for restriction on food advertising to children in Australia

A study from the University of Sydney published in the international journal Public Health Nutrition, shows food companies are increasingly targeting young people via advertisements during children’s high-rating television programmes.

It is the first Australian study to compare advertising patterns during the top-rating TV programmes for 5- to 12-year-olds and 13- to 17-year-olds with other viewing times.

Led by research Dietitian Bridget Kelly at the Australian Centre for Health Promotion, the study found that although total food advertising quantities fell between 2002 and 2006, there was a higher concentration of high-fat, high-sugar food adverts during popular children?s television programmes.

These foods made up 65.9 per cent of adverts - 63 out of 96 per week - during the top 20 programmes for 5- to 12-year-olds compared with just 39 per cent of ads shown during adult viewing periods. The authors conclude that this is too high given that children should ideally get no more than 14 per cent of their energy from such foods. In popular programmes for children aged 13-17, high-fat, high-sugar foods made up 66.8 per cent of food advertisements.

“These analyses clearly showed that the programs most popular with children and young people have significantly higher proportion of total food and high fat/high sugar food advertisements when compared with other viewing times.”

High-fat, high-sugar foods are likely to be contributing to excess energy intake, overweightness and obesity among Australian children, so, the authors argue, Australia should act to reduce children’s exposure to such advertisements.

Advertising for core foods, especially fruit and vegetables, has increased since 2002, although they still only account for a small proportion of overall food ads.

The authors say Australia is lagging behind international moves to restrict food advertising to children which, according to CHOICE polling, is supported by more than four in five Australians.

To read the article click here

For further information regarding Public Health Nutrition please go to: http://journals.cambridge.org/PHN

Or contact: kchristomanou@cambridge.org

The author of the paper, Bridget Kelly can be contacted on +61 (0)2 9036 3331 or mobile +61 (0) 422 979 960

About Cambridge University Press Journals
Cambridge University Press publishes over 220 peer-reviewed academic journals across a wide spread of subject areas, in print and online. Many of these journals are the leading academic publications in their fields and together they form one of the most valuable and comprehensive collections of research available today.

About Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the publishing division of the University of Cambridge, one of the world?s leading research institutions and winner of 81 Nobel Prizes. Cambridge University Press advances learning, knowledge and research worldwide. It publishes over 220 journals and over 2,500 books a year for distribution in more than 200 countries.