This project will analyse children鈥檚 exposure to television advertising for high fat, sugar or salt food and drink.
Background
At present, food and drink products that are high in fat, sugar or salt are not allowed to be advertised during children鈥檚 television. There have been calls to extend these restrictions to all television advertising prior to the 9pm watershed.听
Aims
This project provides evidence on children鈥檚 exposure to television advertising for high fat, sugar or salt food and drink.听
Methodology
We describe how the advertising that children are exposed to varies across the day, the portion that is either side of the 9pm watershed, how much occurs during children鈥檚 programming, so is subject to current restrictions, and how much is for products that have a nutritional profile score (used to measures whether food and drinks are high fat, sugar or salt) above the current threshold for regulation.听
We use advertising data from AC Nielsen and the Broadcasters Audience Research Board, which contains details of television adverts, including the brand advertised, date and time of airing, channel and programme.
We combine this with nutritional information from the Kantar Worldpanel which enables us to construct nutritional profile scores for each product advertised in order to look at how much of the advertising that children see is for products that have a nutritional profile score above the current threshold for regulation.
Timing
- December 2017 鈥� March 2018
Impacts and outputs
Key findings:听听
- In 2015, 87% of the television advertising for food and drinks seen by children (4-15) were during non-children鈥檚 programming.听
- 50% of the television advertising for food and drink that children saw was for food and drink that is high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) or was for restaurants and bars. 39% of this was for HFSS food and drink products and 11% was for restaurants and bars, the majority of which are fast food outlets.听
- Of the television advertising that was for HFSS food and drink products or restaurants and bars, 70% of the advertising took place prior to the 9pm watershed. Extending restrictions to cover pre-watershed programming would have affected the advertising of products high in fat, salt and sugar. Adverts for restaurants and bars would be restricted if they featured products high in fat, salt and sugar.听
Since 2007 it has not been permitted to advertise food and drink that is high in fat, salt or sugar during children's television programmes. Evidence from Ofcom suggests that in 2016 children spent 64% of their viewing time watching programmes outside children鈥檚 programming.听[1]听
Recent discussions around the possibility of a second wave of the Government鈥檚 childhood obesity strategy have included calls from health campaigners and leaders of all the main opposition parties to extend current restrictions on when food and drink products that are high in fat, salt or sugar can be advertised to cover all pre-watershed advertising.听
In a new briefing note published today, IFS researchers show that half of the television advertising for food and drink that children saw in 2015 was for products that are high in fat, sugar or salt or for restaurants and bars (the majority of which are fast food outlets), and that a large portion of this advertising takes place before the watershed.听
Contact
Tom Jeffery
Institute for Fiscal Studies
贰:听tom.jeffery@ifs.org.uk
T: 020 7291 4800
M:听07730 667013
Briefing note
&驳迟;听Children鈥檚 exposure to TV advertising of food and drink听(辫诲蹿)
By Rachel Griffith, Martin O鈥機onnell, Kate Smith and Rebekah Stroud
听
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The NIHR Policy Research Unit in Healthy Weight is part of the NIHR and hosted by 香港六合彩中特网.
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The NIHR Policy Research Unit in Obesity is now the NIHR Policy Unit in Healthy Weight and is part of the NIHR and hosted by 香港六合彩中特网.