“Why Is My Local Area A Giant Ad Space For Junk Food?”
14 Sep 2024
Bite Back activist Brooke speaks with the Obesity Health Alliance about her experiences being targeted by junk food companies.
Young people have been telling us they are surrounded by adverts for burgers, chocolate bars and sugary drinks for a while, and the emphasis has been on ending their exposure online. But we know the bombardment of junk food advertising ramps up the moment they leave their home. Brands spend millions of pounds a year on advertising their products, so towns across the country are flooded with junk food advertising on billboards, at bus stops and in shopping centres. It’s the cultural wallpaper. Research shows that unhealthy food advertising increases children's recognition of brands, their preference and ultimately their purchases. Bite Back ran a survey of young people aged 13-19, and one in three said a junk food advert would encourage them to buy the product at the next opportunity. [1] It’s bad news for child health. Today, nearly a third of children aged 2-15 are at a higher risk of developing illnesses like type 2 diabetes and heart disease in their futures.
Bite Back’s youth activists have been setting out a vision of what a healthier future might look like. This includes campaigning for an end to unhealthy advertising — online, on TV and outdoors. We’ve met with decision makers up and down the country and we’ve seen that momentum on this issue is building. Several local councils and devolved mayors have already stepped up to protect child health by restricting advertising featuring unhealthy products on council-owned properties. The policy to end junk food advertising across the Transport for London network that came into force in 2019 has been shown to be a big success, with a recent study finding that households in the city purchased an average of 1,000 fewer calories per week from products high in fat, salt or sugar. [2] And there have been no financial losses because no brand is banned from advertising — it simply needs to swap from advertising unhealthy to healthier food.
But the majority of outdoor advertising spots are beyond the control of local government. Young people in Manchester walked along their local high streets to see how the problem manifests for the 688,321 young people living in Greater Manchester. They found that areas are saturated with adverts from a range of brands and for products including burgers, sugary drinks, chocolate and pizza.
“As someone who travels one hour each way to town for college, I’m no stranger to seeing tons of junk food ads on my daily commute. They’re everywhere you can name, the bus stops, the ad screens in Piccadilly Gardens and the huge billboards showcasing junk food along the way. I honestly couldn’t think of an example of healthy food advertising I’ve seen. The most frequent ads I’ve seen are from Burger King, McDonald’s and KFC, especially on the bus stops outside Primark, where many college students disembark. So even though we’re told to eat a balanced diet, what’s most promoted and available to me is cheap fast food. I think our government should do more to protect young people in our spaces by ending junk food advertising outdoors and returning our city to a place to live, instead of giant commercial ad space.” Brooke, 17, Manchester
With this level of bombardment, it’s no wonder that half of the 20 coolest brands according to Gen Alpha (7-14-year-olds) are food and drink companies that are typically associated with unhealthy food and drink: McDonald’s, Oreo, Pringles, Skittles, Coca-Cola, KFC, Domino’s, Fanta, Cadbury and M&Ms. [3]
We know the food giants are determined to maximise their reach to young people, and that’s why in August, we took over some of England’s busiest shopping spaces with a powerful anti-junk food campaign. But it shouldn’t be up to young activists to give children a commercial break — and we certainly can’t afford to replace every junk food advert with the likes of McDonald’s reportedly spending £78m a year on roadside ads! We need the national government to step up and use its powers to protect child health. Planned regulations to protect children from marketing of high fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) food and drink should be extended to outdoor areas.
[1] Bite Back 2030 (2023) Enticing, Effective & Everywhere
[2] Yau, A et al. (2022) Changes in household food and drink purchases following restrictions on the advertisement of high fat, salt, and sugar products across the Transport for London network: A controlled interrupted time series analysis. PLoS Med. 2022 Feb 17;19(2):e1003915.
[3] Beano Brain (2024) Coolest Brands 2024