Upcoming Campaign to Protect Children from Junk Food Marketing
Most food marketing children see is unhealthy. This is not surprising given that unhealthy foods are more profitable to food manufacturers because they’re packed full of cheap ingredients like salt, sugar, and fat.
Research shows that NZ children are exposed to unhealthy food marketing over 27 times a day across multiple settings, excluding screens and food stores (Signal et al., 2017). This exposure is more than twice their average exposure to healthy food marketing. Māori children are exposed to unhealthy outdoor advertising 1.5 times that of NZ European children and to fast food advertising at almost double the rate of NZ European children.
Cancer Society has joined an alliance of NGOs who are calling on the Government to tackle junk food marketing. Unhealthy food and drink marketing affect children’s eating behaviour, leading to children becoming overweight and setting them up for a lifetime of health-related consequences. Being overweight and obese in adulthood significantly increases the risk of at least 12 different types of cancer.
Join us and support the Government in introducing legislation that restricts children's exposure to unhealthy food and drinks marketing. This includes sponsorship, brand advertising, outdoor spaces, online platforms, and traditional media like broadcast.
Works Cited
Signal, L. N., Smith, M. B., Barr, M., Stanley, J., Chambers, T. J., Zhou, J., Duane, A., Jenkin, G. L., Pearson, A. L., Gurrin, C., Smeaton, A. F., Hoek, J., & Ni Mhurchu, C. (2017). Kids’ Cam: An Objective Methodology to Study the World in Which Children Live. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 53(3), e89–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2017.02.016