Time to chuck out junk food adverts targeted at children
Junk food companies have been using targeted online tactics on young people for years, encouraging bad eating habits that have fuelled our child obesity problem. One schoolchild in four in Ireland is overweight or obese and teenagers are showing signs of heart disease that used to be found only in middle age. Although junk brands aren’t solely responsible, there is far too much talk of parental responsibility as the solution.
The “pester power” to which parents are subjected is largely generated by junk brands targeting children at every opportunity. It is 15 years since the link between junk food marketing and children’s diets was proven. The evidence is clear; that is why junk adverts on Irish television were restricted in 2013.
The brands involved have…
