Every day, we are bombarded by advertising. It takes all forms: print, broadcast, billboards, sponsorship, placement, proximity marketing through smartphones, algorithms and ‘influencers’ on social media and online, and cleverly placed corporate logos. Advertising is relentless.
Lockdown means that children and young people are spending increasing amounts of time behind screens, whether for school work or to socialise or play. It means that they are exposed to more advertising than ever, much of which they may not even recognise as such. While traditional adverts can be a problem, particularly when it comes to unhealthy foods high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) (see page 31), targeted online marketing is much worse. It makes it easier for advertisers to bypass parental control and harder for children to escape their influence.
Food adverts have come under renewed scrutiny. The government has consulted on a proposed ban on all online HFSS food advertising (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and Department of Health and Social Care, 2020). Responding to the proposal, organisations representing the advertising industry lamented the potential impact on the advertising and food industries. They stated that (IAB UK, 2020):
‘Companies have already made a significant contribution to the nationwide effort to improve healthy lifestyles and diets through reformulating products, and with very effective healthy-lifestyle initiatives and campaigns.’
It is just not good enough. The advertising and food industries undermine parenting and public health messages and entrench health inequalities through advertising HFSS products, often specifically targeting young people. These industries should not be involved in official public health promotion campaigns; their sponsorship just provides a further opportunity to advertise their brands and allows them to wash their products in a healthier light. They should, however, bear some of the financial burden of the obesity crisis. The so-called sugar tax, in this regard, was a welcome development.
While vital, teaching children and young people media literacy is not going to be sufficient to counter the ill effects of HFSS advertising, as Büttner et al (2014: 174) found:
‘Even if children are fully aware of the influence of advertising during exposure, numerous implicit advertising effects can influence their behaviour in consumption and purchasing contexts. In this respect, strong regulations for advertising to children seem to be needed…’
We need a complete ban on the advertising of products to children and young people. Advertising can affect their perception of what is normal, encourage unhealthy habits, entrench gender stereotyping, encourage materialistic values, and affect self-confidence and body image at a time in their life when they are particularly vulnerable.