Govt urged to step in on junk-food ads
Health groups are calling on the Government to take action against rising rates of childhood obesity by regulating junk food marketing targeted at children.
The advertising industry is self-regulated through the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), with junk food marketing towards children falling under the agency’s voluntary Children and Young People’s Advertising Code, which is due for its five-yearly review.
Health groups are boycotting the submission process in protest at a system they say does little to protect children from junk food advertising and is contributing to New Zealand’s worsening rates of childhood obesity.
They have written to the health and associate health ministers urging the Government to address childhood obesity and poor nutrition through regulation of junk food marketing and implementation of a range of recommended policies.
Associate Health Minister Peeni Henare says the Ministry of Health has provided him with advice on marketing foods to children, and he is considering this.
The ministry says children with obesity are more likely to be obese as adults, and New Zealand has the second-highest rate of children obesity and third-highest adult obesity rate in the OECD, with rates increasing.
The New Zealand Health Survey found in the year to June 30, 2021, that nearly 13 per cent of children aged 2 to 14 years were obese, up from 9.5 per cent the previous year. One in three New Zealanders aged over 15 years is classified as obese.
Among those boycotting the review is health advocacy group Health Coalition Aotearoa and its members, including nongovernmental health organisations such as health providers, health charities, medical and health professional organisations, and academic leaders.
Coalition chairman Boyd Swinburn says the code doesn’t prevent or restrict junk food marketing to children and is full of loopholes.
He says the ASA failed to adopt meaningful recommendations the coalition submitted last time the code was up for review.
‘‘The code isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.’’
It is ‘‘totally inappropriate’’ for the ASA to be responsible for regulating the advertising of junk food, and responsibility should instead rest with the Government, he says.
‘‘They’re just way too conflicted to do a decent job.’’
The Government has done little to stop the rising rates of childhood obesity – an issue which has worsened during the pandemic with junk food marketers ‘‘in overdrive’’ trying to sell their products, he says.
‘‘We need to restrict it now. At the moment there is zero government regulation on marketing to kids.’’
He says allowing the advertising industry to selfregulate is ‘‘like asking the fox to guard the hen house’’.
Henare says he is concerned about childhood obesity.
‘‘It is a complex issue and action needs to occur across a range of areas including child poverty, healthy eating and physical activity.’’
Northland District Health Board chief executive Nick Chamberlain, speaking on behalf of all district health boards as lead chief executive for public health issues, says New Zealand has an ‘‘obesity pandemic’’.
Greater regulation could be expected to reduce obesity and the incidence of associated diseases, he says. Industry selfregulation was unlikely to be effective.
Advertising Standards Authority chief executive Hilary Souter says she was not aware of the boycott, but similar action was taken in 2019 when its alcohol advertising code was reviewed.
She says ASA codes work alongside the dozens of laws that regulate advertising, such as the Fair Trading Act.
Last year, out of 1245 advertising complaints to the ASA, four fell under the Children and Young People’s Advertising Code, one of which was upheld, she says.
The more submissions it receives on the code the better, and people choosing not to engage in the consultation process ‘‘is a bit disappointing’’.
Often submitters raise issues which are outside the ASA’s jurisdiction, for example, that the Government should be the regulator, not the ASA, she says.
‘‘The ASA can’t make a decision on what the Government should or shouldn’t be doing.
‘‘The ASA is a voluntary organisation with voluntary codes. We can’t make anyone do anything.’’
She says there’s no point in the ASA writing a code that industry won’t engage with.
The ASA can ask advertisers to remove advertisements, and for some advertisers there is a significant financial and reputation cost to that, but it can’t issue fines.
She says the ASA’s average time to deal with complaints was within a month, and she is not sure a government regulator could operate within that timeframe.
A 2022 report on unhealthy food and drink marketing in New Zealand says every $1 of advertising spent by the food and beverage industry generates $17 of revenue.
It says there is a long-term societal cost to allowing unhealthy food and drink marketing to continue.
The direct healthcare costs of excess weight are estimated to be $2 billion a year. The indirect costs, which measure productivity losses and reduction in gross domestic product, are estimated to be at least $2b but could be as high as $9b a year, it says.
It says Ma¯ ori children are exposed to about twice as much unhealthy food and drink marketing than non-Ma¯ ori.
University of Auckland research fellow Kelly Garton says New Zealand children face high levels of exposure to junk food advertising on social media, through sports and on television.
The most recent New Zealand research, conducted in 2018, found that children are exposed to an average of 9.5 unhealthy
food adverts for every hour of television they watch on weekdays.
She says the ASA is not entirely ineffective at protecting children from junk food ads and some companies voluntarily comply with the code.
But companies wanting to continue advertising to children will find ways to get around it.
University of Auckland associate professor in marketing Mike Lee says advertisers and junk food manufactures prefer self-regulation because they know the status quo is effective at driving consumer behaviour.
The ASA was set up by the advertising industry which had existing cooperative relationships with junk food manufacturers, he says.