From 2023, advertisements for food products that are high in salt, sugar or fat may disappear from the media throughout the day in the UK. This will be part of the government’s strategy to combat childhood obesity. Today, one in three British children graduating primary school is obese or overweight.
The British government has announced the preparation and adoption of relevant regulations by the end of 2022, so that they will come into force from the beginning of 2023. According to it, during the day, i.e. between 5:30 and 21:00, it is forbidden to display advertisements for Internet and television services on foods that are They are high in fat, salt or sugar.
The restrictions apply only to products of large companies, that is, those that employ at least 250 people. The goal is to protect small and mostly family businesses.
British youth are getting fatter
The government has announced plans to change the advertising market as more and more British children are overweight. One in three young British adults is overweight or obese when they leave primary school.
All this seriously affects their health. Young men who weigh themselves have problems with blood circulation, joints and bones, and also suffer from diabetes or other diseases. The cost of treating these easily avoidable cases is up to £7 billion a year.
According to government experts, two factors are responsible for the problem of overweight and obesity in adolescents – an increasingly unhealthy diet (consisting largely of products containing a lot of sugar) and a lack of exercise. British children spend most of their day sitting on a phone or computer, and the pandemic and related lockdowns have made this worse.
The British government wants to combat the problem of overweight and obesity in adolescents by encouraging healthy eating and exercise. At the same time, he wants to limit the promotion of unhealthy food products.
The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health explained that “the content that young people see on the Internet has an impact on their choices and habits.” joe cruchel.
Advertising industry protests
The new regulations will hit the British advertising market hard. It is estimated that up to half of the displays during the day are devoted to the promotion of sweets, sweetened beverages or other unhealthy snacks.
This is why the advertising industry is so protesting against the government’s plans. Saira Tekin The British Publishers News and Media Association (NMA) argued that “there is no clearly defined relationship between advertising of sweets and childhood obesity”.
In her opinion, the lack of commercials on TV won’t get kids to start eating healthy. “Instead of tackling childhood obesity, this strict law will only harm media publishers whose existence depends on advertising revenue,” Tekken commented.
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