Compliance with children’s television food advertising regulations in Australia

BMC Public Health

Correspondence

Pascale Quester¹  Kathy Chapman²  Caroline Miller³  Michele Roberts⁴  Simone Pettigrew⁴ 

[1] Discipline of Public Health, School of Population Health and Clinical Practice, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia;Health Strategies, Cancer Council NSW, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia;South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia;Discipline of Public Health, School of Population Health and Clinical Practice, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia;The University of Western Australia (M263), 35 Stirling Highway, 6009, Crawley, WA, Australia;

关键词: Child obesity;    Food advertising;    Regulatory compliance;    Public policy;    Diet;    Nutrition;    Food marketing;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-12-846

 received in 2011-12-24, accepted in 2012-09-17,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the Australian co-regulatory system in limiting children’s exposure to unhealthy television food advertising by measuring compliance with mandatory and voluntary regulations. An audit was conducted on food and beverage television advertisements broadcast in five major Australian cities during children’s programming time from 1st September 2010 to 31st October 2010. The data were assessed against mandatory and voluntary advertising regulations, the information contained in an industry report of breaches, and the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating.ResultsDuring the two months of data collection there were a total of 951 breaches of the combined regulations. This included 619 breaches of the mandatory regulations (CTS) and 332 breaches of the voluntary regulations (RCMI and QSRI). Almost 83% of all food and beverages advertised during children’s programming times were for foods classified as ‘Extras’ in the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating. There were also breaches in relation to the amount of advertising repetition and the use of promotional appeals such as premium offers, competitions, and endorsements by popular children’s characters. The self-regulatory systems were found to have flaws in their reporting and there were errors in the Australian Food and Grocery Council’s compliance report.ConclusionsThis audit suggests that current advertising regulations are inadequate. Regulations need to be closely monitored and more tightly enforced to protect children from advertisements for unhealthy foods.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Roberts et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012