OTTAWA – The rising incidence of childhood obesity is cause for serious concern, but banning advertising to children is not the quick-fix solution to a complex problem, says the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA).
In a presentation to a conference on childhood obesity here this week, Bob Reaume, the ACA’s Vice President of Policy and Research, said the amount of food and beverage advertising on television directed to children has actually been decreasing in recent years even as obesity rates have climbed.
Reaume’s comments stood in contrast to those of a panel, comprised of academic and community representatives, who see a causal link between advertising and obesity.
The panel is calling on governments to impose a marketing ban on “unhealthy” food and beverages to children. The panel based its recommendation on “best available legal, scientific and social evidence on food marketing to children and its impact on obesity”.
“Access to our children is a privilege not a right, and as such should be subject to stringent regulation,” said Avi Lewis, conference panel moderator on the consensus statement. “We believe the status quo is unacceptable, and cannot continue. Complexity is not an excuse for inaction.”
The conference, sponsored by the Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance of Canada, was held in response to a report on childhood obesity released last year by the federal government’s Standing Committee on Health.
Reaume reminded the audience not to confuse the U.S. situation with Canada’s. In the U.S., he said, marketers spend twice as much as Canadian marketers on advertising.
Children’s TV advertising in Canada amounts to about $60 million, or about 1.8 per cent of total TV advertising, he said. Of that, about $20 million is spent specifically on food and beverage advertising.
Reaume also said that existing Canadian regulations limit the maximum allowable amount of commercial time for children’s TV to eight minutes per hour, which is less than half the time allotted for other TV slots. Between 9 a.m. and noon, advertising directed to children is not permitted. Moreover, he said, Quebec does not allow children’s directed TV commercials, and four networks (CBC, CTV, Global, and CityTV) do not run them either.
Between 2002 and 2007, he said, the total number of food and beverage TV commercials directed at children under 12 decreased from 475 a week to 406.
Reaume said the industry is taking a proactive approach to the obesity problem by pledging only to advertise healthier choice products and healthy active living messages.
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