Ban on ads ‘won’t cut child obesity’

The research concludes adverts have only a limited impact on children, lasting an hour or two.

Researchers from Hull University Business School examined a dozen different studies done in the UK and US and say other major factors can’t be ignored – including advertising in video games, so-called advergames, as well as the price of food.

Stephan Dahl said pressure groups focused on traditional advertising as the “villian of the piece”.

However advergames, which can feature characters that can “talk” to a child through 
social networking sites, or which they can play with, were “pretty much unregulated – yet children are playing them hundreds of times”.

He said: “I think that part of the problem is that advergames are directed at very young people, whereas of course a lot of the policy is being made by people who are more mature, who don’t go on websites and don’t play that much with their iphones.”

Although obesity rates have risen dramatically in 20 years, in line with TV viewing and exposure to TV ads, children’s exposure to food ads had decreased over the same period.

Dr Dahl said: “We already have rules in place banning certain types of advertising, such as those for foods high in fat, sugar and salt, during programmes aimed primarily at children.

“Since no marketing campaign is based on media advertising alone, there needs to be more investigation into the impact of coordinated communications to understand the wider picture.”