[HN Gopher] UK bans daytime TV ads for cereals, muffins and burgers
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       UK bans daytime TV ads for cereals, muffins and burgers
        
       Author : ivewonyoung
       Score  : 157 points
       Date   : 2024-12-08 19:51 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.france24.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.france24.com)
        
       | mentalgear wrote:
       | I hope other countries take action soon. It's deeply
       | irresponsible how we allow advertisements and Big Sugar/Fast Food
       | companies to exploit colorful cartoon characters and misleading
       | health claims to hook people--especially children--on excessive
       | sugar and fat consumption. This not only fosters unhealthy eating
       | habits but also conditions them to crave specific branded flavors
       | from an early age.
        
         | whycome wrote:
         | Are adults not allowed to like colourful cartoon characters?
         | Fruit flavours?
        
           | daseiner1 wrote:
           | Parent commenter didn't write anything to the contrary;
           | obviously the median child gets more excited by those two
           | things than the median adult.
           | 
           | I really loathe these sort of "gotcha" comments.
        
           | akira2501 wrote:
           | You're telling me this ad appeals to you in your demographic?
           | 
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJmM2CSn2ao
        
             | whycome wrote:
             | Isn't the issue there the claims of "fruit flavours" easily
             | misinterpreted as having actual fruit and including vitamin
             | c prominently when it's just fortified.
        
               | meesles wrote:
               | You've moved the goalpost! No, the issue is that fruit
               | flavors and cartoon characters are abused to appeal to
               | children. That is what the original comment said and
               | which you only half replied to! The video provided to you
               | was an example of such - cartoons and 'fruit flavors' to
               | hook kids on wanting sugary cereals for breakfast.
        
       | hecticjeff wrote:
       | I don't think this goes far enough. Kids see adverts for this
       | stuff in so many other places, TV is just one small step. Take a
       | kid into a supermarket and there's junk food advertised
       | everywhere.
        
         | Dinux wrote:
         | It's a first step. The larger point here is awareness.
        
       | lijok wrote:
       | Baffling to me how advertising to those without a stable source
       | of above living-cost income is allowed in the first place. Let
       | alone advertising to children.
        
         | zabzonk wrote:
         | How do you select for "those without a stable source of above
         | living-cost income?
        
           | lijok wrote:
           | No idea. That's for the advertising firms to figure out.
        
           | chrisjj wrote:
           | Ration TVs, obviously :)
        
         | Cthulhu_ wrote:
         | They still get stuff though. Daytime advertising for toys is
         | basically aimed at kids' birthday / christmas wishlists, pocket
         | money, etc. If you add it up, that's hundreds of whatever your
         | currency is per year across birthdays, gift giving holidays,
         | and family / extended family.
        
       | jsheard wrote:
       | Can we do gambling ads next? We banned tobacco ads and then
       | seemingly forgot the lesson that it's actually bad to let
       | advertisers shove addictive and self-destructive products in the
       | publics face, including to former addicts at risk of relapse.
        
         | optimalsolver wrote:
         | >Can we do gambling ads next?
         | 
         | As long as we ban ads for stock trading platforms (i.e.
         | gambling for the professional classes) at the same time.
        
           | jsheard wrote:
           | I don't disagree, but stock trading ads are in some ways
           | already more strictly regulated than gambling ads here.
           | Gambling ads are required to have a vague "please gamble
           | responsibly" statement, but ads for CFD trading platforms are
           | required to have a prominent warning stating the exact
           | percentage of their accounts which lose money (often >75%).
           | The gambling ads don't have to tell you the real odds of
           | coming out ahead.
           | 
           | e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM_zuudkSnY
        
           | stego-tech wrote:
           | I think a fair and reasonable advertisement policy is to ban
           | all advertisements during "children's programming hours", or
           | 0800 to 1600 when school is not in session. During "Prime
           | Time" hours of 0500-0800 and 1600-2300, adverts should be
           | limited to luxury goods (e.g., fashion), government PSAs, and
           | non-addictive goods or services (NO drugs, NO tobacco, NO
           | gambling, and NO stock trading, to name but a few). Between
           | 2300 and 0400, allow "free reign" on subscription channels
           | but still bar "vice" or addiction ads.
           | 
           | We've got a century of data showing laissez-faire approaches
           | to advertising results in maximum harm to a society, and
           | ample recent data from the internet age showing how dark
           | patterns in psychology are exploited by advertisers to drive
           | outcomes.
           | 
           | We have to do better, and the UK's step is at least an
           | attempt to stem the harm. I can't fault entities from at
           | least _trying_ to do better.
        
             | chgs wrote:
             | Daytime tv is all about brainwashing wealthy retired
             | people.
             | 
             | Still not as bad as those weird country which advertise
             | prescription medicine
        
             | alexchamberlain wrote:
             | I wonder what proportion of children are still watching
             | mainstream TV? My son (4) mainly watches Disney+ and
             | Netflix.
        
           | iamacyborg wrote:
           | Wait until you hear about how CFD trading is legal in large
           | parts of the world.
        
           | datavirtue wrote:
           | Irrelevant. Stocks are a share of a company. The have book
           | value and intrinsic value. Freedom to buy and sell is
           | essential.
           | 
           | Of course, crypto speculation is something different
           | altogether. Maybe you were thinking about all the poor
           | schleps buying Bitcoin for $100k?
           | 
           | Even then, your chances of winning are around 50/50 and no
           | one is forcing you to cash out.
        
           | hermitcrab wrote:
           | There is an important difference. With stocks, the punter
           | wins on average. With gambling, the punter loses on average.
           | 
           | You can still lose all your money on stocks, with a
           | combination of bad choices and bad luck. But it is much
           | easier to lose it on the horses.
        
             | shric wrote:
             | The punter does not win on average with stocks due to fees
             | and spread.
        
               | hermitcrab wrote:
               | IIRC average stock market returns have historically been
               | around 7% per year. Index funds charge around 1% per
               | year.
               | 
               | My stock ISAs have gone up pretty much every year (after
               | inflation and fees).
        
         | jonplackett wrote:
         | The warnings for gambling ads are particularly infuriating.
         | 
         | Like what would anyone think of a smoking warning of "when the
         | fun stops, stop"
        
         | manojlds wrote:
         | It's interesting that one of the tax free investment/savings
         | choices in the UK is basically a lottery.
        
           | thom wrote:
           | You're not risking any capital though, if you mean Premium
           | Bonds.
        
             | anotheracc88 wrote:
             | Even better, pay that money into a pension and buy a
             | lottery ticket.
        
               | hinkley wrote:
               | Pensions sort of already are a lottery. Can't collect if
               | you're dead. Live to 95 and they help a lot. Though
               | inflation will still getcha in the end.
        
               | anotheracc88 wrote:
               | Yes if you choose annuity but you can also buy those with
               | regular cash so it's as relevant here as price of tea.
               | 
               | Pensions are more tax efficient and offer a better option
               | of investments (companies) than what is effectively fiat
               | interest going into a lottery pool.
               | 
               | If you have cash in premium bonds you might die young
               | then pay inheritance tax.
               | 
               | Better give your kids cash earlier to live off or invest
               | to avoid this, and so they can over-stuff their pensions
               | ;). Not many people think that far ahead (60 year
               | horizon)
        
               | hinkley wrote:
               | Some young adults in my life have grandparents who just
               | hit this point, and are trying to set up gifting money to
               | the grandkids in the form of brokerage accounts.
        
               | petesergeant wrote:
               | > Pensions sort of already are a lottery
               | 
               | Annuities maybe, but those aren't the only kind of
               | pensions
        
               | kgwgk wrote:
               | That seems the definition of pension. You may be thinking
               | of something else.                 pension            a
               | regular income paid by a government or a financial
               | organization to someone who no longer works, usually
               | because of their age or health
        
             | hgomersall wrote:
             | Indeed, premium bonds are just a slightly more
             | "entertaining" way of allocating interest. Just as
             | arbitrary as the MPC, but potentially a much higher rate
             | (probably not though).
        
           | derriz wrote:
           | I'm pretty sure all gambling winnings are tax free in the UK?
           | 
           | Thank the power of the horse racing/gaming/gambling lobby.
           | 
           | Many years ago when I lived there, I had an IG Index account
           | - who market themselves as a "financial spread betting"
           | service. At the time, you could buy/sell futures and options
           | with them but it was presented in a way that emphasized that
           | you were "spread betting" - but the mechanics were the exact
           | same and expiries all lined up with the obvious counterparts
           | in the liquid futures space.
           | 
           | So because you were NOT investing but gambling, "winnings"
           | were tax free.
           | 
           | I just googled and they're still going - presumably still
           | offering the same betting "service".
           | 
           | It's funny to see the efforts that scam and pure gambling
           | services go to to try and present themselves as staid and
           | serious "investment" business while IG Index offered access
           | to well-regulated financial markets but kept reminding you
           | that you were betting.
        
             | ahoka wrote:
             | No gambling taxes? Must be a money laundering heaven.
        
               | justincormack wrote:
               | there are taxes, but they are largely on the earnings of
               | the gaming companies
        
           | duiker101 wrote:
           | For those unaware, this comment is referring to premium bonds
           | in the UK[1]. It is a very interesting system, I agree! But
           | there are quite a few parts of the system that make it way
           | more fair than a lottery.
           | 
           | Most obviously, it doesn't cost to enter. So the most you can
           | "lose" is a missed interest income from putting the money in
           | another source.
           | 
           | After that, it's definitely the fact that the algorithm is
           | designed to both pay a certain percentage of people and
           | always have specific return. [1]
           | 
           | You are also limited to how much you can enter to 50k.
           | 
           | With all that in mind, at the end of the day it feels like
           | many small wins over time, with the super random chance of
           | occasionally having a big-ish payout.
           | 
           | It's definitely designed to feel like a lottery, but in
           | reality is way more akin to normal savings than a lottery.
           | 
           | [1] https://www.nsandi.com/products/premium-bonds
        
             | teruakohatu wrote:
             | In New Zealand this scheme was called "Bonus Bonds" and was
             | wound up on 26 February 2024. Interest was charged on
             | "wins" just like any other income. Apparently the average
             | return was a paltry 1.5%.
        
         | cynicalsecurity wrote:
         | The business is probably owned by some rich and influential
         | chap who eagerly shares with the right people in the
         | parliament.
        
         | ashconnor wrote:
         | Considering Labour's connection to gambling companies [0]
         | probably not.
         | 
         | [0]
         | https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/28/tory...
        
           | hermitcrab wrote:
           | Indeed. It has been heavily covered in Private Eye, as well.
           | Labour is deeply in hock to the gambling industry. So much
           | for "gambling is the curse of the working class".
        
           | fakedang wrote:
           | Funny how you can buy British politicians for dirt cheap. In
           | India or the US, it would take at least $100k-200k to get a
           | single politician's attention at the bare minimum, while in
           | the UK you can influence party positions for 25k quid.
        
             | saagarjha wrote:
             | I don't have enough experience about India to comment on
             | that but in the US the amount of money it takes to
             | influence a politician is quite low.
        
           | curtisblaine wrote:
           | If it ruins a neighbourhood, Labour are probably in favour of
           | it.
        
         | LeoPanthera wrote:
         | It's interesting that the UK has banned gambling ads online,
         | but not on TV. Combined with the fact that they regulate
         | cryptocurrencies as gambling, that's why you get no UK crypto
         | ads online. For example, the PayPal UK front page doesn't even
         | mention that you can buy crypto there.
        
           | zakki wrote:
           | Do you have the link that regulate crypto as gambling in UK?
           | I tried Google it but no luck.
        
             | exe34 wrote:
             | wait if crypto is gambling, then they don't tax the
             | proceeds, right? but I'm pretty sure they tax it as capital
             | gains..... so it's gambling for advertising purposes but
             | capital investment for tax purposes...
             | 
             | I suppose the law is an ass.
        
           | rgblambda wrote:
           | Maybe this is blurring the line between online and TV, but TV
           | streaming services definitely have gambling ads. A gambling
           | ad literally just came on the Channel 4 player in front of me
           | as I started typing this.
        
         | andrepd wrote:
         | I'm not in the UK, but yeah it's nothing short of fucking
         | disgusting how plastered TV is with these incessant gambling
         | ads. "Gamble on slots on your phone while you're in the metro,
         | the hairdresser, the dentist!" they shout, at kids and adults
         | alike, 2 times every minute on every commercial break.
         | Disgusting.
        
         | dzonga wrote:
         | i was going to comment on this. gambling ads of all kinds, sky-
         | bet, sky vegas casino + whatever in their hydra form. in
         | depressed places like luton - you see how gambling has
         | destroyed the little that remained.
         | 
         | ban gambling companies from sponsoring sports teams, from being
         | associated with sports teams etc.
        
           | hermitcrab wrote:
           | It is very noticeable that the gambling shops are clustered
           | around the poorest parts of every town.
           | 
           | I grew up near a gambling shop. You would see the punters
           | desparately trying to eek out every last puff on their roll-
           | up cigarettes, while the gambling shop owner would drive up
           | in his Rolls Royce.
        
         | b800h wrote:
         | Or massive vaping ads on the side of school buses.
        
         | surgical_fire wrote:
         | I wonder if a prohibition to have gambling ads on TV would
         | affect the Premier League teams that have gambling sponsorships
        
         | gwbas1c wrote:
         | Let's just ban all ads!
        
       | Winblows11 wrote:
       | What about adverts on YouTube and TikTok and other online
       | platforms? I doubt kids/teenagers watch much TV at all these
       | days.
        
         | xxs wrote:
         | "This government is taking action now to end the targeting of
         | junk food ads at kids, across both TV and _online_. ",
         | 
         | it's a quote from the article, it's very likely they'd ban ads
         | targeted at children.
        
           | chgs wrote:
           | I expect a lot of pushback from the new u.s administration
           | about any online regulations.
        
             | xxs wrote:
             | The regulation would apply to the UK. UK brands and goods
             | sold in the UK, by established/registered companies the UK.
             | Not possible to sell any retail goods of the sorts w/o a
             | registration in the UK, so stopping them advertising won't
             | be hard.
             | 
             | I don't think US administration would be able to do
             | anything, much like GDPR.
        
               | chgs wrote:
               | Tarrifs and other threats
        
           | anotheracc88 wrote:
           | For Youtube often the content is an ad too. Will Google need
           | to stop serving huge swaths of content to the UK at certain
           | times? Hope so!
        
         | crowcroft wrote:
         | It baffles me that more countries haven't put legislation in
         | place to severely limit what ads can be served to under 18 year
         | olds (or at least under 16).
         | 
         | I worked in an ad agency a number of years ago, and Phillip
         | Morris approached us with a deliberate plan to launch big
         | budget ad campaigns on social media platforms specifically
         | because they could get in front of younger demos more easily
         | (traditional media having existing regulations in my country).
         | 
         | The original idea was to build a large database of prospects to
         | sell direct to even after regulation eventually cracks down on
         | them. Amazingly no regulation has come yet, and Meta has done
         | little to no self-regulation.
         | 
         | You can blame parents, but even then one under appreciated
         | problem with digital ads is the lack of shared experience. With
         | TV advertising, you know what your kid is seeing, everyone can
         | see a verify what ad ran at what time on what channel etc. If a
         | parent and a kid are scrolling social media their experience is
         | entirely different, and you can't go back and see what someone
         | else has seen.
        
       | Pet_Ant wrote:
       | Well I didn't understand how -besides the cereals maybe- are
       | unhealthy
       | 
       | > Breakfast cereals including ready-to-eat cereals, granola,
       | muesli, porridge oats and other oat-based cereals.
       | 
       | until I re-read and saw this:
       | 
       | > But the new restrictions will not apply to healthier options
       | such as natural porridge oats and unsweetened yoghurt.
       | 
       | So I think it's not clear in the first sentence but "ready-to-
       | eat" is meant to apply to all the items in the list and not just
       | the cereals.
        
         | deskr wrote:
         | It's very strange they say porridge oats are banned, then go on
         | saying "natural porridge oats" are not.
         | 
         | In my mind porridge oats are natural and you don't have to say
         | that. If you have something else you need to say so.
        
           | dmart wrote:
           | I'm assuming they mean stuff like Quaker oatmeal packets
           | which are half sugar.
        
             | jay_kyburz wrote:
             | My kids love natural porridge, however there is a constant
             | battle about how much honey they are allowed to drown them
             | in. :)
        
               | chrisjj wrote:
               | I am amazed honey is not on this list of "junk" foods.
        
               | datavirtue wrote:
               | It's on mine. Refined sugar with water, pure and simple.
               | It doesn't get a pass.
        
               | Dylan16807 wrote:
               | Are any other toppings on the list? If it's just
               | standalone foods I'm not surprised.
        
           | beejiu wrote:
           | They are not banned. They are on "the list" (as the article
           | says) meaning they must be scored using the "NPM model". Only
           | scores exceeding 4 are "banned", which will include sweetened
           | oats.
        
         | KaiserPro wrote:
         | Its the cereal industry being bastards again.
         | 
         | Breakfast cereals contain a colossal amount of sugar, and are a
         | great way to keep your diabetes on its toes. They haven't been
         | healthy for years, moreover the toys they put in them have been
         | shit as well.
        
           | Cumpiler69 wrote:
           | _> moreover the toys they put in them have been shit as well_
           | 
           | That's what pisses me the fuck off. Even Kinder toys have
           | been shit for decades.
        
         | beejiu wrote:
         | There's a lot of misinformation going around about how the
         | legislation works.
         | 
         | All porridge oats are "in scope" of the regulation, which means
         | they need to be scored using the "Nutrient Profile Model" score
         | before being advertised.
         | 
         | The result is that porridge oats are not banned, but golden
         | syrup instant porridge oats will be.
         | 
         | Here's the scoring model:
         | https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nutrient-prof...
        
           | seabass-labrax wrote:
           | Do you think this is worth posting as a top-level comment?
           | There's already lots of speculation in this thread (confusion
           | even), and I appreciate you bringing an authoritative
           | reference to the discussion.
        
       | dageshi wrote:
       | Good thing they made this move once daytime tv was basically
       | irrelevant to anyone under 40 or it might've had some impact.
        
         | gwerbret wrote:
         | Direct quote from the article which I'm sure you read: "This
         | government is taking action now to end the targeting of junk
         | food ads at kids, across both TV and online."
        
       | tomp wrote:
       | Wow, what's wrong with burgers?
       | 
       | I mean, certainly you can get bad meat, and maybe it's easier to
       | conceal in a burger than in a steak, but ... how about literally
       | _all other processed meat_ that is invariably processed more than
       | burgers? Salami, sausages, hot dogs, ...
       | 
       | I personally love burger, and consider it one of the finest
       | foods.
       | 
       | Fortunately, there's a very easy way to know the _quality_ of a
       | burger - if they ask you, how well you want it done, it 's high
       | quality! Shitty burger places like McDonalds and Burger King
       | don't want to risk selling you a medium-done burger... Funny
       | enough, UK is one of the better places for high-quality burger,
       | much better than e.g. Switzerland or Slovenia! My favourite in
       | London is (was? 2019) Honest Burger...
        
         | Karellen wrote:
         | > Also on the banned list are products _such as_ chickpea or
         | lentil-based crisps, seaweed-based snacks and Bombay mix as
         | well as energy drinks, hamburgers and chicken nuggets.
         | 
         | The foods mentioned in the article are not an exhaustive list
         | of all the foods for which the government has banned
         | advertising. It's possible they've also banned ads for salami,
         | sausages and hot dogs, but the article didn't mention it.
         | 
         | Probably because, compared to burgers, there aren't that many
         | ads for salami, sausages and hot-dogs during daytime TV, so
         | it's not seen as much of a problem, or as worth mentioning.
         | 
         | But because you mention it - how many daytime ads do you see
         | for high quality burgers, like Honest Burger, as compared to
         | ads for McDonalds and Burger King?
        
         | KaiserPro wrote:
         | There is nothing wrong with most foods as part of a mixed diet.
         | The problem is, a burger/box of chicken is ~PS2-4 and fucking
         | fast. A meal with vegetables either takes preparation, or is
         | >PS6
         | 
         | The issue here is that the UK is obese as fuck. Partly because
         | of education, partly because of price, party because of
         | supermarkets.
         | 
         | If we want to avoid spending billions upon billions tackling
         | diabetes and other related conditions, the UK needs to tackle
         | its diet. This is
        
         | Krutonium wrote:
         | In Canada, it's outright illegal to sell a burger medium done.
         | If you get caught, your restaurant _will_ be closed for a
         | couple weeks minimum, along with a hefty fine. It must be fully
         | cooked, or not served.
        
           | dylan604 wrote:
           | seriously? No medium well, just straight up well done? So,
           | hockey pucks? Ahh, now it makes sense. It's a law endowed by
           | Canada's love of hockey
        
             | dboreham wrote:
             | It's perfectly possible to cook a burger such that it's not
             | dry but also not raw.
        
           | dboreham wrote:
           | Same in UK. Family members keep asking me when we travel
           | there "will my burger be done right". Uhhh..there's only one
           | kind of doneness for a burger in these parts.
        
           | akira2501 wrote:
           | It's ground beef. The rule is you must cook it to the proper
           | internal temperature. This is reasonable food safety. This
           | simply precludes medium as an option.
           | 
           | If they grind their own meat or use something like ground
           | chuck or ground round you can get it medium.
        
           | tomp wrote:
           | That doesn't make sense. It's beef.
           | 
           | If you can serve a steak medium, then you can also grind the
           | steak, cook it medium and serve it.
        
         | pshc wrote:
         | The burgers they show on TV are pure junk food, let's be real.
        
       | ApolloFortyNine wrote:
       | I could see supporting with this, but it does seem like an abuse
       | of the 'for the children' argument for this.
       | 
       | Children pretty much have to eat what you give them until they
       | get a job.
       | 
       | Also some chicken nuggets are bad, but some average a gram of
       | protein per 10 calories, which is a pretty good ratio, and
       | especially for frozen food. Can't help but think this is too
       | broad.
        
         | bobthepanda wrote:
         | more so in the past, there was a lot more food advertising
         | directed at kids, because the thought was that kids could annoy
         | their parents enough to drag the whole family to an
         | establishment. and some marketing tricks work a lot better on
         | children because of their social settings and general
         | impulsiveness (e.g. "All the cool kids have Lunchables")
        
           | chgs wrote:
           | The milky bar kid is strong and tough
           | 
           | The red car and the blue car had a race
           | 
           | Turn the milk chocolatey
           | 
           | Keep hunger locked up tip lunch
           | 
           | I have tried to avoid adverts for 20 years, but the adverts
           | of my childhood (not just ones aimed at kids - autoglass
           | repair and replace, safe style do buy one get one free, dfs
           | sale ends Sunday, ronseal quick drying wood stain does
           | exactly what it says on the tin)
           | 
           | The brainwashing is sickening.
        
         | anotheracc88 wrote:
         | This is not systems thinking though. It take a lot of will for
         | parents to fight kids desire for junk food from social pressure
         | alone. Should parents be perfect citizens that make 10000
         | correct micro decisions a month correctly every time? Or can
         | society help a bit by blocking some of the predators?
         | 
         | It is like "just say no". Thay'll do it for drug addicition.
         | Simple.
        
         | petesergeant wrote:
         | > Children pretty much have to eat what you give them until
         | they get a job.
         | 
         | I don't think this is true in practice; it feels sufficiently
         | obvious that children's tastes influence what they get fed that
         | I'm not going to bother to find a citation
        
         | Cthulhu_ wrote:
         | > Children pretty much have to eat what you give them until
         | they get a job.
         | 
         | I don't believe you have children of your own; is this an
         | armchair opinion or your own lived experience?
         | 
         | Anyway while on paper this is true, in practice kids will ask
         | for this and may get it as a treat, or they may get it from
         | somewhere else. And as a one-off, that's fine, but they do get
         | influenced by ads to want more of it at any time. Same with
         | fast food chains, somehow the ones that aren't available where
         | I live got an almost mythical status with the teenager here. A
         | Taco Bell did open here but honestly it was mediocre and
         | overpriced.
        
           | xxs wrote:
           | Teens and so would be given money to buy food themselves,
           | e.g. before/after going to football training, swimming,
           | dancing etc.
           | 
           | Indeed, it's unrealistic to expect all kids would be served
           | food and observed while eating.
        
         | worble wrote:
         | >Children pretty much have to eat what you give them until they
         | get a job.
         | 
         | Damn, someone better ring up the cereal companies and tell them
         | to stop advertising, I bet they'll feel foolish realizing
         | they've wasted all that money!
        
         | akira2501 wrote:
         | > Children pretty much have to eat what you give them until
         | they get a job.
         | 
         | So.. then.. why are we advertising to them _at all_?
        
         | WD-42 wrote:
         | > Children pretty much have to eat what you give them until
         | they get a job.
         | 
         | If true why do cereal companies spend billions on advertising
         | directly to children? For the fun of it?
        
           | phyzix5761 wrote:
           | I think its so children are open to eating it after the
           | parents have bought it. If the food doesn't look appealing
           | the parent will have to work harder but its the parents
           | making the food choices not the child. Most of the time
           | children don't even go to the grocery store with their
           | parents.
        
       | ojagodzinski wrote:
       | cool but nobody watches TV this days.
        
         | anticorporate wrote:
         | I mean, that's objectively disproved by the advertising
         | industry who is profiting from these ads.
         | 
         | Maybe you and I aren't, but lots of people are.
        
       | Eumenes wrote:
       | this is exactly the type of policy you'd expect from a governing
       | body that is completely out of touch with the working class. I
       | can imagine the cambridge, UCL, and oxford graduates patting
       | eachother on the back after the meeting, congratulating
       | themselves on solving childhood obesity.
        
         | userbinator wrote:
         | It's what you'd expect of a country that's rapidly diving into
         | Orwellian dystopia.
        
           | hermitcrab wrote:
           | Do you actually live in the UK or is this based on Musk
           | tweets?
        
       | jsyang00 wrote:
       | Yes, it's the ads. After all, we know how economical and fast it
       | is for people to access healthy meals. I look forward to the
       | speedy eradication of all obesity problems
        
         | anotheracc88 wrote:
         | The perfect. Enemy of the good.
        
       | jackjeff wrote:
       | If only I ever watched ads on live TV I would have noticed...
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | Can we have one or several months without ads of any kind?
       | 
       | Perhaps then we can appreciate a world without ads more.
       | 
       | It might also reduce the environmental burden of overconsumption.
        
         | petesergeant wrote:
         | Move to the UK and only watch the BBC, and yes
        
           | b800h wrote:
           | That's not ad-free. You have to put up with ads for a load of
           | BBC programmes which will almost inevitably contain a slew of
           | progressive messaging.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | It is amazing when you visit a city that has banned billboards
         | especially when coming from one that does not.
         | 
         | It's the same (opposite) feeling you get when watching an ad
         | free streaming service and the switch to live TV or Prime.
         | Which is just like switching to a browser with out uBO.
         | 
         | If society went 30 days with a universal uBO experience, I
         | think all wars would end, cats & dogs sleeping together,
         | shields would become plow. You know, basically peace on earth.
        
         | alecco wrote:
         | IMHO the only way they'll pay attention if enough of us turn it
         | all off.
        
       | jasonlfunk wrote:
       | I just hope that the US can ban ads for pharmaceuticals.
        
         | dboreham wrote:
         | Never happen. There's a place called Canada though...
        
       | zabzonk wrote:
       | I hear crumpets are also frowned on - my favourite breakfast
       | food!
        
       | steviedotboston wrote:
       | what about sausage rolls and meal deals?
        
       | paulpauper wrote:
       | future headline: A UK man was found dead in his flat after his TV
       | broke. apparently he had starved to death after not being
       | reminded of the existence of food by the ads.
        
       | cryptozeus wrote:
       | Good that they are trying but " ...aired after the 9:00 pm"
       | running ads after 9 pm is even worst. If you need to consume
       | sugar you might as well do it in day time.
        
         | xxs wrote:
         | It's about kids, ads targeted at kids (according to the
         | article)
        
       | contingencies wrote:
       | The significant background that the UK just delivered a _House of
       | Lords_ enquiry in to the food system[0] which recommended a
       | "complete ban" on junk food advertising and that the government
       | ban junk food vendors from regulatory feedback. You can bet the
       | consumer packaged goods (CPG) AKA 'junk food industry' - the
       | likes of _Mondelez_ , etc. - are actively resisting these changes
       | with all manner of false reports, shoddy advertising doublespeak
       | and back-channel arrangements. Given this background, the ban is
       | relatively light touch. Expect further developments.
       | 
       | [0]
       | https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5901/ldselect/ldmfdo...
        
       | blackeyeblitzar wrote:
       | What about alcohol? Or other carb heavy or sugar heavy products?
       | Why these?
        
         | seabass-labrax wrote:
         | As referenced by beejiu elsewhere on this thread[1], it applies
         | to all foods products based on their nutritional content; there
         | are no exemptions. Alcohol, however, does appear not to be
         | covered by these new rules, but there are existing restrictions
         | about advertising alcohol - [2] is one document on the topic,
         | although I can't immediately tell if it's out of date.
         | 
         | [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42360734
         | 
         | [2]:
         | https://www.asa.org.uk/static/uploaded/d3683dc1-189e-413c-86...
        
       | JSDevOps wrote:
       | This will make zero difference these days.
        
       | phyzix5761 wrote:
       | Help me understand. The UK government basically said that parents
       | are not responsible enough to make dietary decisions for their
       | children so the government needs to step in and do it for them?
       | 
       | Does that not seem like an overreach? Its not like 4 year olds
       | are driving to McDonald's by themselves and ordering burgers. The
       | parents are the ones being targeted here.
        
         | Argonaut998 wrote:
         | The UK is so far gone with government overreach at this point.
         | They don't seem to mind.
        
         | widdershins wrote:
         | I'm not sure what you're getting at. They banned certain
         | advertisments at a particular time of day. They didn't ban
         | parents from giving their children whatever thet want to give
         | them.
        
         | forinti wrote:
         | They're not prohibiting anyone from feeding these things to
         | their children. A lot of people will continue to do so.
         | 
         | The government would have to spend a lot of money on counter-
         | campaigns to keep the public well informed and it probably
         | wouldn't have the desired effect on children.
         | 
         | Finally, and this is a very important point for me, children
         | cannot enter into business deals/contracts; commercials are
         | business proposals; hence there should be no ads targeting
         | children.
        
         | majormajor wrote:
         | It's more "we don't want corporations selling unhealthy junk to
         | have direct access to influence super-impressional kids" -
         | cause guess what, in that case? You can be a perfectly
         | responsible parent dietary-decision-wise, but have your kids
         | whine and complain constantly because the kids _aren 't_
         | informed about the problems of it and just want the tasty shit
         | they saw all the ads for.
         | 
         | Would you allow salespeople into your home to pitch your kids
         | on stuff all day if they were in-person instead of on a screen?
         | 
         | Why not complain about the overreach of irresponsible companies
         | trying to convince kids who have no way of knowing better to
         | start damaging their long-term health?
        
         | jraph wrote:
         | Children are totally targeted. They will ask their parents and
         | put pressure to buy them stuff. Maybe even the parents who
         | don't cave in can be relieved of this.
         | 
         | In the longer term, stuff that enters your brain as a child
         | shapes you and lasts long. See how well how many people in
         | their 30s remember ads of their childhood.
         | 
         | Why would someone defend such ads anyway? I don't believe they
         | achieve anything good for anyone except the advertiser.
        
         | mirsadm wrote:
         | Do you have children? They're targeted with ads _everywhere_.
         | You can be a responsible parent but these things cause
         | unnecessary stress. Quite frankly if the government wants to
         | ban all advertising I would be thrilled.
        
       | pessimizer wrote:
       | What a useless, idle government. This is just pretending to work.
       | Next, they'll raise the price of alcohol 10%, and make the
       | penalties for "knife crime" 10% longer. Western governments have
       | ceased to function for anything other than graft.
       | 
       | There's a good paper (more than one, actually) on this that I
       | wish I could recall offhand; but outside of graft, Western
       | governments can only manage to _govern_ (and not particularly
       | well) during sudden emergencies, like natural disasters. Other
       | than that, they 're running worthless lifestyle campaigns to
       | justify their continued existence to a faddish public, like this.
       | 
       | The reduction of sales for cereals, muffins, and burgers will be
       | non-existent. British children will remain fat. We will remain in
       | thrall to a useless politics of trendy middle-class aesthetics,
       | cheered on by celebrities.
        
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