Protecting children from food marketing
One of the fringe events on Monday 29 October will be about food marketing to children. There’ll be presentations by a number of consumer advocates from India, the UK and the USA, as well as Clare Hughes, CHOICE’s own Senior Food Policy Officer.
With the rising concern over childhood obesity in many parts of the world, it’s hard to ignore the fact that manufacturers are still pushing junk food to children through product promotions (think Shrek appeal) and mainstream media.
CHOICE is concerned about the negative influence of marketing on children’s food choices and we have been campaigning for better regulation. But with increasingly sophisticated advertising and little government intervention, the role of the consumer advocate is more important than ever. This is an international problem – in order to effect real change we need to take a global approach.
On Monday 29 October, CI members from all over the world will come together and talk about the key challenges relating to food marketing, and share the lessons they’ve learnt, in a series of food marketing fringe events.
The line up of international speakers includes Sue Davies from Which? Magazine in the UK, Bruce Silverglade from the Centre for Science in the Public Interest (USA), and Bharath Jairaj from the Citizen consumer and civic Action Group (CAG), India.
CHOICE’s own Clare Hughes, Senior Food Policy Officer, will be speaking on the subject of food marketing regulation in Australia.
The day will wrap up with an interactive panel discussion for CI members to share their experience and success stories, giving speakers and participants a chance to trade tips and ideas.
This will be a great kick-off to Tuesday’s keynote address on the Obesity Pandemic, which will feature leading obesity expert Professor Boyd Swinburn, and Brock H. Leach recently retired from soft drink giant PepsiCo.
Expect lively debate and the chance to meet other consumer advocates at this fringe event.
The messages and advertising used by companies to promote their products has traditionally been a key concern of the consumer movement. As the marketing techniques of these multinational food and beverage companies get ever more sophisticated such as product placement in films and video games, viral marketing, dedicated websites for kids, so consumer organisations all around the world must continually question the effect of this on people. How can we expect people to ignore the billions of dollars spent on advertising that seek to persuade them towards food high in fat, sugar and salt? How can we expect that children will be able to resist the offer of a free toy with a burger and fries?
Most of all, is this something that we are prepared to ignore or will we hold these corporations to account?
Emily