A consumer protection advokat in the UK has helped push through a junk food bill to prevent junk food manufacturers to advertise in a way which targets children. Just like in the United States and some other countries, the United Kingdom is experiencing a drastic increase in childhood obesity, in part because of junk food that is targeted towards kids and reinforcing bad eating habits. The junk food bill will prevent advertisers from advertising foods that are harmful to the well being, health, or education of children, and these children can not be the focus of any advertising campaign. Many of the advokat favor this bill, saying that this will make advertisers act responsibly and ethically. Some other advokat are not so sure, although they do not argue that childhood obesity is becoming a problem, simply that banning advertising to children will not stop them from eating unwisely. One of these advokat argue that what a child eats depends in a large part upon the parents, and that if they do not buy junk food but instead buy healthy alternatives, the obesity epidemic may slow or even stop.
One advokat points out that the junk food bill does not just include only children's food, but also others, including candy bars, soft drinks with a high sugar content, and even crisps, because advokater for the bill say these products are highly marketed to the younger generations. Some marketing tricks are so ingenious and sneaky that many parents are not aware of them however. The popular website Neopets, which is visited by millions of children from around the world every day, advertises for soft drink giant Pepsi-Cola, using a game which serves Pepsi to pretend customers while delivering subtle brand messages to the players. On the same website, MacDonalds also uses advertising mixed with game play to advertise for their Happy Meals, which are not usually the most nutritious choice. An Advokat also points out that the companies have had plenty of time to change their ways, but this may result in a loss of revenue, which is something most companies will not do intentionally. This is the reason that the bill has been drafted, to force companies to market responsibly to children regardless of the bottom line. As a parent, it is possible to control what your children eat and are exposed to at home, but not everywhere else. With Internet in the schools now, students can access sites which market unethically from anywhere
