Changing ads on TV won’t tackle the obesity epidemic

David C says:

09:41am | 06/07/09

“and, dare I say it, individual responsibility for our personal health and that of our families”

says it all really

Amy says:

11:53am | 06/07/09

Carnell says:
“So let’s use some common sense.  The reason why the number of overweight people is increasing is we are eating more and exercising less.”
and then:
“It has been good to see leading food manufacturers committing not to advertise to children… the pressure is now firmly back on Australia’s food industry to deliver responsible advertising to children”.

So lets get this straight - there is no link between junk food advertising and obesity, and so junk food ads should not be banned, but junk food companies shouldn’t advertise their products anyway?

Be honest Carnell - it sounds to be like the clients that you are shilling for know that their products are linked to obesity and they KNOW that by advertising to children they are making the problem worse. They are just trying to get in first with self-regulation that will be less damanging to their businesses than government regulation.

The types of arguments that Carnell is making - using over the top language such as “bleating”, inferring that the people who disagree with her are lacking in “common sense” when they are actually respected public health researchers, and on the one hand denying there is a problem while on the other saying that the industry will fix the problem without government regulation - is EXACTLY the type of argument that was made for years by other companies that make their profits by selling dangerous products such as cigarettes.

Clearly, the increasing obesity and diabetes rates show that self-regulation (by both companies and individuals themselves) is not working.

Dishonest conributions to the debate by the food an grocery council such as this are only serving to increase the spin and decrease the amount of sensible, policy-based discussion

Darrin says:

01:27pm | 06/07/09

Agree with Amy, if it truely makes no difference to consumption pattens then why would they bother spending all that money creating the ads and kid friendly campaigns anyway?

These guys are not silly, they market these products with a kids focus as they know they will sell more simple as that!

I do however agree that its not going to solve the problem

Charlie says:

01:33pm | 06/07/09

Mrs Carnell’s bio link fails to mention that she served as the Chief Minister of the ACT as a Liberal party member.  Surely this is a relevant piece of information for the casual reader in judging any article that she writes that criticises current government policies.

Alonso says:

03:21pm | 06/07/09

“Nowadays, children are spending more time indoors playing computer games, surfing the internet and blogging.”

I stopped reading after this laughable statement. Yes, children spend ages writing blogs. I wonder which ones Kate Carnell follows? Any particular ones, like a 8 year-old that thoughtfully critiques the Australian political system, or a 5 year-old that analyses current pop culture trends?

Ford says:

03:26pm | 06/07/09

All these kids they’re trying to save…Where do they get the money from to buy these “HFSS” foods in the first place?  That’s right people!  From their parents!  Banning junk food ads is pointless if the parents take the kids out and give them money to buy crap anyway (or the parents buy it at the grocery store because it’s “more convenient”).  It’s their lard arse parents that need to take some responsibility.

Stephen says:

03:35pm | 06/07/09

What Amy and Charlie don’t understand is that companies advertise so that consumers choose their product over all other products, not to increase the overall sales of fat food.  Of course an individual company’s marketing works (most of the time) to boost sales - but it also takes sales away from competitors.

Charlie says:

03:57pm | 06/07/09

So apparently equating the Grocery Council’s support for the pushing of fat and sugar laden food to impressionable children to the tobacco industry’s historical conduct is something that won’t be published. So much for the free press and freedom of speech.

SD says:

07:58pm | 06/07/09

Kate, you say:

“The reason why the number of overweight people is increasing is we are eating more and exercising less.”

Slightly more correct is that over the long term, if an individual is consuming more energy than they are expending, then they will gain weight.

By volume, most people consume the same amount of food from day to day.

The problem with ‘junk’ or high sugar foods is that you don’t need to eat very much of these foods to ‘blow out’ your energy requirement for the day. For example, a large serving of fish and chips can exceed half of an adult male’s entire daily energy needs.

Since a person’s volumetric food requirements are reasonably stable across the week, eating such food can cause an energy in/out imbalance. That is, because of the high concentration of fat or sugar in these foods, they will gain the energy, but continue to eat throughout the day until they have eaten their usual amount of food. If they don’t raise their energy expenditure accordingly, they will have an energy surplus for that day.

In addition, recent research into the CCK hormone suggests that fatty foods suppress the “I’m full” messages your stomach sends to your brain. Ever wondered why you just had to eat those last couple of chips?

Advertising, if it is effective, leads people to purchase a product. If advertisements didn’t work, then we wouldn’t have them; they are indeed effective. The crucial point here is that people are enticed to purchase a product where they wouldn’t normally have done so. That’s the advertising thesis. Is it not?

Stable food consumption volume + stable energy expenditure + surplus energy consumed as a consequence of advertising = weight gain.

It’s rather simple really.

And I didn’t even mention the addictive properties of high fat / sugar / salt foods.

Jayne P says:

08:58pm | 06/07/09

My kids are young, for the small amount of TV they do watch is only the ABC -good quality preschooler shows WITHOUT ADVERTISING. The in your face advertising during kids shows on the commercial channels is digusting.

G says:

10:19am | 07/07/09

We can all agree that us ‘normals’ really dislike obese people and it’s a base genetic response recoil at the site of them.