On October 30, 2007, The Sydney Morning Herald, put out an article regarding a new World Health Organization code that will control the advertising of food to children. This code will outlaw the use of popular cartoon characters to sell foods that are high in fat, sodium, and sugar on both television and the internet.
Obesity has been spreading like an epidemic around many parts of the w
orld, and it is now just as prevalent in children in as it is in adults.
This proposal is very similar to the advertising standards of Finland and Germany where advertising to children with the use of cartoon characters is prohibited. In Norway and Sweden, any advertisement targeted at children age 12 and under is banned completely. Currently, there are no such restrictions in Australia, where Children’s Television Standards have not been changed for 17 years.
It is good to see Australia try to help end the growing problem of obesity throughout their country. Children are very impressionable and it is simply unfair to target them with advertisements for unhealthy products, because they are bound to be very effective. The United States has seen are particularly drastic increase in the number of obese children. It would be nice to see some advertising restrictions be put in placed in the U.S. to protect children from being targeted by marketers.
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