Making too much of a meal of it?

The British TV watchdog, OFCOM, has announced very stringent regulations on the advertising of junk food on television. Beginning within a month, there must be no advertising of food with a high concentration of salt, sugar or fat on any TV programmes made for children and, on any TV channel which caters exclusively for children.





The restrictions do not stop there. Also included are any adult programmes (and they are to be listed) which OFCOM considers are watched by large numbers of children, including the MTV and VH1 music channels.

Swingeing and much harsher than most people expected - and the TV chiefs are saying it will cost them nearly £40 million in lost revenues.

For the health campaigners that is still nowhere near enough. Representatives of the British Heart Foundation and the British Medical Association are already crying that the measures do not go far enough. They are demanding a 9pm watershed before which no such foods can be advertised at all.

I have waxed lyrical before on this blog about the danger of excessive legislation prompted by good intentions and I believe what OFCOM has already determined is as far as it is reasonable, in a consumer society, to go.

The well intentioned diet 'nannies' do give the impression of a society where the influence of parents is negligible and the entire apparatus for ensuring that little Johnny and Janey do not turn into shapeless blobs at 14 and consequently die at thirty from heart disease is all in the hands of the state.

I recognise that we are living in an age of growing and dangerous over indulgence where there are more young children being diagnosed with diabetes because of obesity, even at a very young age but you are not, in my opinion, going to change that too much by banning the advertising of McDonalds produce during the screening of Scooby Doo.

McDonalds, BurgerKing, Dominos etc have a right to market their products as best they can in a consumer society. After all they are not selling poison per se. Despite the emotional arguments to the contrary, so called junk food is only bad for you in excess - like anything else. I just feel that these lifestyle guardians are taking away the responsibility from parents and from the children themselves, to make measured and educated choices.



It probably is sensible to limit the more seductive advertisements with free gifts etc shown to impressionable small children but as for a 9pm watershed before one sees a commercial for a hot dog - well that just strikes me as ridiculously prescriptive.