International taskforce calls for global ban on junk food advertising to children to combat obesity epidemic

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NewsTarget.com printable article
Originally published September 6 2006
International taskforce calls for global ban on junk food advertising to
children to combat obesity epidemic
(NewsTarget) The International Obesity TaskForce (IOTF) recently released a
report urging UN agencies and governments to develop globally enforceable
regulations to ban or severely limit exploitative marketing techniques aimed
at children to sell junk food.
At the International Congress on Obesity in Sydney, the IOTF outlined seven
principles worldwide governments should uphold to protect children from junk
food ads, in hopes of stemming the obesity pandemic. The TaskForce
recommends limiting or outright banning TV, internet and newspaper
advertising, sponsorship, competitions, loyalty schemes and product
placements aimed at children 13 and younger. The IOTF also says that
industry self-regulation has been ineffective, and governments must step in
and implement regulations.

"We know quite clearly that self-regulation in the food and beverage
industry simply doesn't work," says Professor Boyd Swinburn of Deakin
University and president of the Australasian Society for the Study of
Obesity. "What we need are hard and fast statutory regulations that force
companies to comply."

The IOTF recommends that governments commit to commercial-free schools and
support children's access to healthy foods. Governments should write all
policies into law, and make it illegal for companies to fail to comply, the
TaskForce recommends.

Swinburn says the food and beverage industry's self-regulation is "weak,"
since "the last thing they want is to be regulated to reduce sales of those
junk foods that are causing obesity."

Neville Rigby, IOTF policy and public affairs director, says, "If we are to
succeed in halting the global epidemic of childhood obesity, we must
challenge all governments, the whole of the business world, and society ...
to join us in tackling this together."