• Lana A. Hebden, and others
• The Medical Journal of Australia

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Image: smithereen11 / flickr

01 July 2011One of the key recommendations of the National Preventative Health Taskforce was that children’s exposure to advertising of unhealthy foods should be reduced. This was because of the negative impact this advertising had on children’s food preferences and consumption, and potentially on children’s weight status. In response, the federal government recommended that the Taskforce continue to monitor the impact of self-regulation by food and advertising industries before the government took any further action. However, recent evidence has indicated that self-regulation is inadequate in protecting Australian children from the harmful effects of junk-food advertising.

In Australia, statutory guidelines (the children’s television standards) regulate the use of promotions, popular characters and unsuitable material during time periods dedicated to children’s television programs. However, these standards do not regulate the types of foods that may be advertised to children (with the exception of alcohol), and do not apply during times when the highest numbers of children are viewing. Recent self-regulatory initiatives for responsible advertising to children, introduced by food and advertising industries, have provided some specifications for the types of foods and marketing techniques they consider appropriate for advertising to children and for defining child audiences. However these specifications are poorly defined, highly permissive, and are voluntary for food manufacturers and services.

The most recent self-regulatory initiative, the Australian Quick Service Restaurant Industry (QSRI) Initiative for Responsible Advertising and Marketing to Children, specifies that fast-food companies (ie, quick-service restaurants) should “ensure that only food and beverages that represent healthier choices are promoted directly to children . . .”. The QSRI initiative began in August 2009 with seven signatories: Chicken Treat, Hungry Jack’s, KFC, McDonald’s, Oporto, Pizza Hut and Red Rooster. These companies agreed that in advertising to children under 14 years of age, they would only advertise products that represent healthier choices (as determined by a defined set of nutrition criteria for assessing children’s meals), and/or represent a healthy lifestyle in advertisements directed primarily to children.

The authors aimed to measure the impact of the QSRI initiative on the rates of fast-food advertising on Australian commercial television; identify the types of fast foods advertised in terms of their nutritional value; and estimate the likely energy contribution to children’s diets of children’s meals advertised by fast-food companies.

Authors: Lana A. Hebden, Lesley King, Anne Grunseit, Bridget Kelly, and Kathy Chapman.

Image: smithereen11 / Flickr