Government, Parents or Advertisers: Who Should Decide What Children Watch and Eat?

A recent complaint to the Advertising Standards Board by the Obesity Policy Coalition about a Smarties online colouring-in competition aimed at three- to ten-year-olds, and a bill introduced by Greens leader Bob Brown to ban junk food advertising to children, has fuelled debate about the ethics of advertising energy-dense and nutrient-poor foods and beverages to kids ... This raises the question of whether television advertising, or rather advertising in general to an audience of children, is responsible in some way for the rates of overweight and obesity we are currently seeing. Read full article