[Focus] Junk food ads aggravate EU child obesity problem
HELENA SPONGENBERG
06.06.2006 @ 10:02 CET
EUOBSERVER / FOCUS - Increasingly obese children are Europe's ticking time bomb in health care cost terms, with health experts urging European governments to do more to stamp out marketing of unhealthy food to the vulnerable group.
Each year over 400,000 more children become obese in the EU, health commissioner Marios Kypraionou said in May, with research by the International Obesity Taskforce showing that the child curve trend swung upward in the mid-1990s.
Each year, 400,000 more children become obese across Europe (Photo: European Community, 2005)
The UK has the worst rates in Europe, while 36 percent of nine year olds in Italy and 27 percent in Spain are overweight, facing life-long or life-threatening medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and psychological damage.
The phenomenon is a complex one linked to "a mix of poor nutrition and less activity" according to the European Heart Network (EHN) chief Susanne Logstrup, with children increasingly driven to school, relaxing with computer games and with dual income families finding less time to cook well.
But the advertising industry must also take some party of the blame, Ms Logstrup argues, saying "there has been a big increase in the marketing of exactly those food products that children should not be eating" on the TV, internet and via event sponsorship.
The percentage of television advertisements for unhealthy food aimed at children ranged from 49 percent of all child food ads in Italy to nearly 100 percent in Denmark and the UK, according to an EHN report.
"Advertising has an impact on children's food preferences, purchase behaviour and consumption," Ms Logstrup stated, adding it was a significant contribution to poor diets.
The organisation supports an EU-wide ban on television advertisements of unhealthy food and drinks for children until nine o'clock in the evenings as one of the many ways of tackling the growing obesity problem in the EU.
EU measures in infancy
Last year, Brussels warned companies to restrict advertising junk food to children or face legislation. But the topic is controversial.
French liberal MEP Jean-Marie Cavada said the EU might get "very restrictive" measures on junk food ads for children but said he did not know whether it would come to a ban.
The commission has already made good one of its goals to improve product labelling with a new law on nutrition and health claims on food labels adopted in May 2006.
At the beginning of this year, the Union of European Beverages Associations (UNESDA), representing the 38 billion non-alcoholic drinks industry in Europe, announced it would impose a voluntary ban on adverts targeting children.
Nine major soft drink companies including Pepsi, Coca-Cola and Cadbury Schweppes have agreed not to place any marketing communication in printed media, websites or during broadcast programmes where more than 50 percent of the audience are children under the age of 12.
Sweden banned such advertising for children under 12 in 1991 with the backing of the majority of the population, with a similar regime in place in the EU's non-member state neighbour Norway.
Last year, Ireland also imposed a ban on television advertisements for sweets and fast food, with the new law prohibiting the use of celebrities and sports stars to promote junk food to kids.
Greece has a ban on advertisements for children's toys between 7 in the morning and 10 at night and a total ban on advertisements for war toys.
EU-wide rules from 1989 state that "advertising must not take advantage of children's inexperience, and must not directly encourage children to persuade their parents or carers to buy the products being advertised."
Advertising without frontiers
A new proposal for a revised EU law on regulating advertising across the bloc - the "television without Frontiers" directive dating back to 1989 - is currently being discussed in Brussels.
The cornerstone of the bill is the "country of origin" principle which means that audiovisual media service providers only need to deal with the laws of the country where they are established.
Under the directive, a television company based in France would be able to broadcast advertisements in Swedish to children in Sweden without doing anything illegal.
Sweden, the only EU member with a total ban on advertising for children, fully supports the "country of origin" principle as part of the internal market.
But Stockholm is pushing for the revised directive to include wording that "broadcasters need to take into consideration the national values in the member states," Swedish EU diplomat Jerker Stattin said.
EU media commissioner Viviane Reding indicated earlier this year that a member state can take action against an audiovisual media service provider if it can prove that the provider abused the "country of origin" principle.
"The issue of jurisdiction is sensitive and I would like to underline that the commission understands the concerns of some member states about problems related to the abusive circumvention of local legislation," said Ms Reding.
"We know and respect that, above all, the protection of minors and consumers are crucial points for the member states."
But Ms Logstrup, together with many other critics, still insist that unless advertisements of unhealthy food to children are banned across the bloc the problem of childhood obesity will continue.