NEWS: Disney bans junk-food advertising on children's programs

LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Co. has become the first major media company to ban junk-food advertising on programming that targets children.

Building on a healthful-foods initiative in its theme parks, Disney imposed new standards for food and beverages advertised on Disney XD and during the Saturday morning programs on Disney-owned ABC television stations. Disney Channel and Disney Junior, which are not ad-supported but receive brand sponsorships, would also be covered under the nutrition guidelines, officials said.

Kantar Media, a research firm specializing in advertising, estimated the total amount of ad spending for this kind of advertising on Disney-owned channels and Saturday morning children’s programming on ABC totaled $7.2 million in 2011.

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Additional article:

Don't Expect Kids' Networks to Follow Disney on Food Ads

Walt Disney Co.'s new restrictions on food advertising to children may increase attention to healthy eating and enhance the company's brand, but don't look for them to spur new ad policies elsewhere in kids' TV.

The media giant said Tuesday that it will no longer accept sponsorships or advertisements for foods that don't meet certain guidelines for Disney Channel, Disney XD, Saturday-morning programming on ABC-owned stations, kids' radio and its online properties. While all eyes are now on Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and The Hub to follow suit, none of the new networks gave any indication that they are prepping their own new guidelines for food and drink ads.

Source: http://adage.com/article/media/expect-kids-networks-follow-disney-food-ads/235192/

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/06/06/2170822/disney-bans-junk-food-advertising.html#storylink=cpy

ARTICLES: Fat Free TV – one step towards tackling childhood obesity

The impact of junk food advertising on childhood obesity is a topic often debated in the media. One side calls for banning junk food advertising during children's television viewing times while the other questions whether ad bans will work, decrying a "nanny state".

Some commentators choose to lay blame squarely on parents' shoulders, as if that alone will be enough to reverse the worrying levels of childhood obesity in Australia. But the complexity surrounding childhood obesity and the need to act cannot be denied.

One in four Australian children is considered overweight, and unfortunately a high proportion of these kids will become overweight adults. This increases their chance of developing chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

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REPORTS: Report damns online junk food advertising to children

Report damns online junk food advertising to children

Inconsistencies exist in advertising regulations across different media, enabling companies to market high in fat, salt and sugar products (HFSS) to children online, claims new report.

http://www.foodnavigator.com/Legislation/Report-damns-online-junk-food-advertising-to-children

NEWS: Expert calls for societal solution to child obesity (QATAR)

DOHA: Children are at great risk in the face of a worldwide obesity crisis, fuelled by fast food, poor health practices and a barrage of media messages, a leading expert on children’s media told an audience at Northwestern University in Qatar on Tuesday.

Dr Ellen Wartella (pictured), director of Northwestern University’s Center on Media and Human Development in Evanston, Illinois, and the chair of an international task force crafting policies to combat childhood obesity, previewed a forthcoming global study which will advocate solutions to a growing global problem with deep implications for the US and Qatar.

“New evidence shows that childhood obesity is a societal problem more than it is an individual problem – and needs societal solutions,” she said. The best intelligence on the subject has come from a chorus of voices from medicine and public health, social policy and media, she said.

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NEWS / INTERNET / GAMING / OBESITY: Online games and social media used to target junk foods at children

Online games and social media websites are being used to target junk foods at children and even recruit them for promotion, health campaigners claim.

Researchers from the International Association for the Study of Obesity warned that firms are using the internet to push foods with high salt, sugar and fat content directly to children, with parents often ignorant of what is going on.

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NEWS: UN urges protection of children against marketing of unhealthy food

21 January 2011 – The United Nations health agency today called for action to reduce the exposure of children to the marketing of food with high contents of fat, sugar or salt, which exposed them to the risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCD) caused by poor diet during their lives.

Television advertising is responsible for a large share of the marketing of unhealthy foods and, according to available evidence, advertisements influence children’s food preferences, purchase requests and consumption patterns, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

In May last year, WHO member States endorsed a new set of recommendations on the marketing of food and non-alcoholic beverages to children. The recommendations call for national and international action to reduce the exposure of children to marketing messages that promote foods high in saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, free sugars, or salt, and to reduce the use of powerful techniques to market them to children.

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NEWS: Children's junk food ads 'made for adults'

Advertisers are bypassing rules aimed at curbing junk food marketing to children by claiming their ads are targeting adults, an analysis claims.

The industry ad watchdog dismissed complaints about ads for Oreo, Smarties and LCMs rice bars after accepting manufacturers' claims that their ads were aimed at adults, despite the presence of children in the television commercials.

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NEWS / BROADCASTING: ABU Sports Group to focus on childhood obesity (ASIA / EUROPE)

Tackling childhood obesity will be one of the important topics for discussion at this year’s meeting of the ABU Sports Group during the 47th General Assembly in Tokyo in October.

Both the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the ABU have agreed to work together on the project.

ABU Director of Sport, John Barton, said childhood obesity was a global scourge.

“Broadcasters, especially those involved in major sporting events, could have a crucial part to play in easing what has become a crisis. Thirty-five percent of children in the United States are obese. And here in Asia we are catching with the West, so far as eating habits and lack of exercise are concerned,” he said.

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NEWS: South Korea to curb TV ads for junk food

Tuesday 19 Jan 2010

South Korea today announced curbs on television advertising for junk food in a bid to cut obesity and promote healthy eating among children, AFP reports.

Advertising of food high in fat, sugar and salt will be banned from all TV from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., the Health Ministry said, and will also be prohibited during children's programmes shown at any time.

"The ban, to be enforced this month or in early February, applies to high-calorie, low-nutrient food, snacks and sweets," a ministry official in charge of food safety said.

Official data showed more than one-third of ads aired during children's TV programmes were for food, mostly for sweets, instant noodles and soft drinks.

Consumer groups have called for stricter measures to protect children from junk food, saying one out of five children in South Korea is overweight.

NEWS / OBESITY: Media flayed for not doing enough about obesity (UAE)

Media flayed for not doing enough about obesity

Dubai : Speakers at a seminar today at Dubai Press Club on the role of the media in fighting obesity among UAE children said the media must play a pioneering role in not only removing the many deep-rooted misconceptions about excessive weight being an indicator of good health, but also in sensitizing advertisers against spreading erroneous notions about weight gain in children.

The seminar, held jointly by Dubai Press Club, the Ministry of Health and the UNICEF, saw a number of speakers enlightening the audience on the various health hazards and psychological impact of obesity among the children in the country.

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NEWS / OBESITY: PM - SA moves to ban junk food advertising (AUSTRALIA)

PM - SA moves to ban junk food advertising

[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2158391.htm]

PM - Friday, 8 February , 2008  18:42:00

Reporter: Nance Haxton

MARK COLVIN: The South Australian Government is to ban junk food advertising in children's viewing times.

The State Government says it's got legal advice that it is possible to enforce the ban at the state level.

The South Australian Health Minister John Hill says the government will implement a voluntary ban first.

But if that doesn't curb the number of advertisements, then it will legislate as Nance Haxton reports.

NANCE HAXTON: South Australian Health Minister John Hill says banning the advertising of soft drinks and foods high in fat, sugar or salt during peak children's viewing times, is only one piece in the puzzle in the government's battle against obesity.

JOHN HILL: We believe strongly that the incidence of advertising of junk food during the times which children watch television has an impact on children and as a government we are concerned about the health of children. We know that one in five kids at the age of four are overweight or obese and as kids get older, the proportion who are overweight or obese is increasing as well.

We as a community need to do something about that. As a government we are doing a whole range of things including making sure that school canteens provide healthy food for children to eat at lunch.

FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2158391.htm