Generally the junk food advertising campaigns are not strictly regulated as some other products like alcohol or cigarettes. But in the recent times there has been a huge public demand to impose regulations on junk food advertising campaigns that are targeted at children, and youngsters.

Today, most of the countries around the world are grappling with the issue of obesity. In the recent times, EU union and Federal Government took some drastic steps against junk food advertisers banning them from advertising their food products in media because of the alarmingly increasing obesity rates in the continent. Till some years ago, obesity was largely considered to be an American problem.  Markos Kyprianou, the EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Affairs, during his interview to Financial Times commented “We made fun of the Americans in a way. We used to regard obesity as only and American problem. Today obesity is on the rise in Europe, especially among children. I am concerned that advertising of foods high in fat, sugar, and salt should not target vulnerable consumers like children.”  In the recent times many of the fast food giants like Mc Donalds, Nestle, etc have come under fire for promoting food products which are high in fat, sugar and sodium contents.

According to a report, in 1983, food advertisers splurged around $ 100 million dollars on food advertisements targeted at kids. Today they splurge 150 times more on such adverts and are always keen to hunt for different mediums that infiltrate into kids' territory. Even after strict ad regulations in print and media, the average American child sees almost 40,000 junk food ads in a year. After facing the ire from public and media, many of the junk food advertisers have now turned to internet advertising for promoting their products. Even after facing harsh criticisms over the product qualities, companies like Coco-cola and Nestle continued to promote their products through various mobile ads and social networking sites. Ian Twinn, director of public affairs at British advertisers trade body ISBA, says that, many of these junk food advertisements are directed towards children over 16 years of age and to see these ads, the under-aged children tend to lie about their ages, which is most common. He further elaborates that in media, the companies have to adhere to strict regulations, but in the internet marketplace, they easily get away with less strict Regulations and Breach of ASA Violations.

It’s high time for the food companies to realize that they should try to deliver quality food items otherwise the lives of kids and youngsters will be in danger.

Image courtesy: abc.net.au