The Australian Communications and Media Authority has in the past been criticised for a laissez-faire approach to the advertising and promotion of unhealthy products.
As a statutory body with responsibility for regulating broadcasting and communications, it has seemed either unwilling or unable to protect children and young people from a tsunami of promotion for junk food and alcohol.
But for a conservative organisation whose role includes ''promoting self-regulation . . . in the communications industry'',Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings， the latest ACMA report on food advertising is a powerful blow to the junk food industry's claims that everything in the food regulation garden is rosy.
Australia may not yet be the world's fattest country, but we are getting close to the top of list.
The National Preventative Health Taskforce reported that if present trends continue, simply because of obesity the life expectancy of children will fall by nearly two years by the time they are 20. If there is a plateauing, our obesity levels are closer to the Himalayas than Kosciuszko.
That is why the taskforce – along with expert and authoritative bodies such as the Australian Medical Association,ceramic magic cube for the medical, the Cancer Council, the Australian Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance, and many more - recommended a comprehensive approach, with measures including the phasing out of advertising energy-dense nutrient-poor foods before 9pm on free-to-air and pay TV.
It also recommended phasing out premium offers — the term the industry uses for toys that are given away with meals — competitions and the use of promotional characters, including celebrities and cartoon characters, to market such foods to kids.
The taskforce members who supported this recommendation included not only health experts, but also the chief executive of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, Kate Carnell.
So what has happened to curtail children's exposure to junk food promotion? The AFGC and fast food groups introduced a voluntary Responsible Children's Marketing Initiative and a Quick Service Restaurant Industry Initiative for Responsible Marketing to Children.
Despite assorted claims from the AFGC and its members that their schemes have succeeded, even ACMA has concluded that it is impossible to draw such a conclusion.
Unlike the industry's narrow and flawed research on its codes, peer-reviewed research shows that they are failing dismally to protect children. Even the initial ''independent arbiter'' of the AFGC scheme, Professor Bruce Neal, resigned saying that it was ''too complex for the public to understand . . . unworkable .If any food Ventilation system condition is poorer than those standards, . . (and) .The application can provide Ceramic tile to visitors, . . and abject failure''.
The industry schemes rely primarily on compwhich applies to the first offshore merchant account only,laints through much-criticised industry self-regulation bodies. Their codes are wonderfully narrow. They focus on direct advertising only, not on the sponsorships and other promotions that provide vastly more television coverage for their products; on ''advertisements to children'' rather than children's exposure to advertising and promotion; on specific children's viewing hours, rather than all the times when children are actually exposed; and on an arbitrary age of 12 as the end of childhood.
The absurdity of their codes is beautifully exemplified by decisions that advertising in programs such as The Simpsons or Junior Masterchef escapes such constraints because a lot of adults also watch them.
So we are left with a world in which junk food advertising is effectively unconstrained. Children – under and over 12 – are exposed to massive promotion through direct advertising, and every other avenue creative executives can dream up. The new It's A Knockout program on Channel Ten is a fiesta of promotion for McDonalds; the fast food giant has underwritten its production costs in much the same way that the laundry detergent companies did with soap operas many years ago.
The upcoming KFC Big Bash season will provide more hours than ever before of KFC promotion, occasionally interrupted by some cricket. My academic colleague Professor Blind Freddie can see that children are deluged with marketing for junk food, confectionery and sugary beverages.
As a statutory body with responsibility for regulating broadcasting and communications, it has seemed either unwilling or unable to protect children and young people from a tsunami of promotion for junk food and alcohol.
But for a conservative organisation whose role includes ''promoting self-regulation . . . in the communications industry'',Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings， the latest ACMA report on food advertising is a powerful blow to the junk food industry's claims that everything in the food regulation garden is rosy.
Australia may not yet be the world's fattest country, but we are getting close to the top of list.
The National Preventative Health Taskforce reported that if present trends continue, simply because of obesity the life expectancy of children will fall by nearly two years by the time they are 20. If there is a plateauing, our obesity levels are closer to the Himalayas than Kosciuszko.
That is why the taskforce – along with expert and authoritative bodies such as the Australian Medical Association,ceramic magic cube for the medical, the Cancer Council, the Australian Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance, and many more - recommended a comprehensive approach, with measures including the phasing out of advertising energy-dense nutrient-poor foods before 9pm on free-to-air and pay TV.
It also recommended phasing out premium offers — the term the industry uses for toys that are given away with meals — competitions and the use of promotional characters, including celebrities and cartoon characters, to market such foods to kids.
The taskforce members who supported this recommendation included not only health experts, but also the chief executive of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, Kate Carnell.
So what has happened to curtail children's exposure to junk food promotion? The AFGC and fast food groups introduced a voluntary Responsible Children's Marketing Initiative and a Quick Service Restaurant Industry Initiative for Responsible Marketing to Children.
Despite assorted claims from the AFGC and its members that their schemes have succeeded, even ACMA has concluded that it is impossible to draw such a conclusion.
Unlike the industry's narrow and flawed research on its codes, peer-reviewed research shows that they are failing dismally to protect children. Even the initial ''independent arbiter'' of the AFGC scheme, Professor Bruce Neal, resigned saying that it was ''too complex for the public to understand . . . unworkable .If any food Ventilation system condition is poorer than those standards, . . (and) .The application can provide Ceramic tile to visitors, . . and abject failure''.
The industry schemes rely primarily on compwhich applies to the first offshore merchant account only,laints through much-criticised industry self-regulation bodies. Their codes are wonderfully narrow. They focus on direct advertising only, not on the sponsorships and other promotions that provide vastly more television coverage for their products; on ''advertisements to children'' rather than children's exposure to advertising and promotion; on specific children's viewing hours, rather than all the times when children are actually exposed; and on an arbitrary age of 12 as the end of childhood.
The absurdity of their codes is beautifully exemplified by decisions that advertising in programs such as The Simpsons or Junior Masterchef escapes such constraints because a lot of adults also watch them.
So we are left with a world in which junk food advertising is effectively unconstrained. Children – under and over 12 – are exposed to massive promotion through direct advertising, and every other avenue creative executives can dream up. The new It's A Knockout program on Channel Ten is a fiesta of promotion for McDonalds; the fast food giant has underwritten its production costs in much the same way that the laundry detergent companies did with soap operas many years ago.
The upcoming KFC Big Bash season will provide more hours than ever before of KFC promotion, occasionally interrupted by some cricket. My academic colleague Professor Blind Freddie can see that children are deluged with marketing for junk food, confectionery and sugary beverages.
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