"Advertising of fast food to children on Australian television: the impact of industry self-regulation" is the title of a study just published in the Medical Journal of Australia by Lana A. Hebden et al. [MJA 195(1) : 20-24, 4 July 2011].
One of the key recommendations of the National Preventative Health Taskforce was that children’s exposure to advertising of unhealthy foods should be reduced. In response, the federal government recommended that the Taskforce continue to monitor the impact of self-regulation by food and advertising industries before the government took any further action.
The most recent self-regulatory initiative, the Australian Quick Service Restaurant Industry (QSRI) Initiative for Responsible Advertising and Marketing to Children, specified that fast-food companies should “ensure that only food and beverages that represent healthier choices are promoted directly to children . . .” In 2009 several major companies signed off on this agreement to ensure they would only advertise to children under 14 years of age products that represent healthier choices and/or represent a healthy lifestyle.
The authors aimed to measure the impact of the QSRI initiative on the rates of fast-food advertising on Australian commercial television by comparing advertising in the same week and time-slots in 2009 and 2010. They found that from 2009 to 2010, the mean frequency of fast-food advertisements increased from 1.1 to 1.5 per hour. "Family meals advertised for children’s consumption in 2010 provided energy far in excess of children’s requirements." They concluded that self-regulation was not effective.
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