HFSS ad ban may be justified – now let’s ban those crap ads

In the UK it’s set to be the first chocolate-free TV Easter as the Government’s ad ban on High Fat Sugar & Salt (HFSS) products kicks in (a 9pm watershed on most TV channels, a complete internet ban.) This is now official, it was mostly adhered to voluntarily at Christmas by food and confectionery companies fearful of something worse.

It’s not yet known if that has helped to reduce childhood obesity (the point) although it has reduced the bank balances of hard-pressed broadcasters with overall ad revenues estimated to be down by some 15%.

You can still advertise non product-specific chocs on TV or use other media as Sainsbury’s and New Commercial Arts have rather artfully with this poster.

Do such ad bans work and, even if they do, are they justified? ITV and Channel 4 say their influence on kids is negligible – but if that’s the case why do the makers spend good money advertising? That doesn’t make sense. And the evidence of your eyes in the UK, alas, is that there are a lot of fat people, including worrying numbers of podgy pre-teens who will then, in all likelihood, be persecuted on social media, sometimes with tragic consequences. Governments have to do something even if they don’t know it’s going to work.

Linear broadcasters would be much better advised to pool their resources to persuade advertisers to use them more. And they could start with a self-denying ordinance on the crap ads that even Channel 4 stuffs its better programmes with. Advertorials of more than a minute should be banned entirely. Now there would be an ad ban worth having.