Backing for campaign to restrict junk food advertising

Loopholes ripe for closure include the rules governing promotions in public telephone boxes – normally outside councils’ jurisdiction – while the remit of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) should be extended to advertising not only near schools but also nurseries, children’s centres, parks, family attractions and leisure centres, it said.

The report from the health campaign groups Sustain and Food Active hailed the “belt and braces” ban on junk food adverts on London Underground, rail, tram and bus services introduced by the city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan.

It states: "This process has highlighted a series of loopholes and failures in the compliance procedure which mean that current regulations do little to meaningfully restrict children’s exposure to physical junk food advertising.

"The onus is on the public to report any breaches, without many knowing what the rules are.

"When complaints are submitted the procedure is lengthy, with rulings on advertisements taking place in many cases long after the advertising campaign has ended.

"When an advertisement was found to have breached the code, there are no financial repercussions for the advertisers, with only a handful receiving publicity, which some may argue is hardly a deterrent, when the companies had been seeking publicity in the first place.

"And then there is the anomaly where a junk food advertisement can appear outside a nursery attended by a 4-year-old, but not outside a school attended by a 5-year-old.

"Local government public health teams should lodge complaints on suspected breaches on advertising of high in fat, salt or sugar products to under-16s to the ASA complaints process, where adverts are placed in settings with a high footfall of children and

young people (not just primary and secondary schools), in order to provide a body of evidence in relation to how companies are currently exploiting existing loopholes in the rules.

"Councils could mirror the Greater London Authority’s healthier food advertising policy across settings over which they have control, as a few London boroughs are proposing, and introduce rules which ensure public advertising spaces are only used to healthier products and eating habits, and therefore pre-approves food advertising campaigns in line with this policy.

"And where they do not control them but have some financial stake, they could seek to influence these contracts."

Ben Reynolds, the deputy chief executive of Sustain, said: “This research highlights the limited powers that local government has to restrict junk food advertising.

“Nationally the government has accepted the need to limit advertising of products high in fat, salt and/or sugar, particularly where viewed by children, and yet there are clear loopholes which need to be closed.

“The Advertising Standards Authority refuses to consider junk food adverts outside many settings used by children such as nurseries to be in breach of current rules.”

Also among the report’s nine recommendations are for the government to tighten restrictions on in-store advertising – including window displays – and the areas immediately surrounding shops. Tougher sanctions are also urged, including that the ASA must have, and use, powers to levy fines on any company that breaks advertising rules more than once in three years.

Dominic Harrison, director of public health for Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "We will always support any evidenced-based approach that helps us deliver our obesity strategy.

"As a council, we already manage many of the advertising assets in the borough and have a strong advertising policy which gives us a lot of control over what we do and don’t advertise.

"Blackburn with Darwen and Pennine Lancashire have also been recently chosen as a national trailblazer for childhood obesity – part of this exciting new initiative will explore the issue of what more can be done at local authority levels to reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy food promotions.”