Life News

UK junk food ad ban starts: no TV adverts before 9pm, no paid online ads at all

A ban on junk food advertising came into force in Britain on Monday, 5 January. Adverts for products high in fat, salt or sugar are now banned on TV before the 9pm watershed, and paid online adverts for such products are banned at all times. Gulf Times, carrying an AFP report from London, said the government calls the measure a world-leading action against childhood obesity.

The health ministry estimates the rules will remove up to 7.2 billion calories from children's diets each year, leave 20,000 fewer children living with obesity and bring about £2 billion in health benefits. In England, 22% of children starting primary school are overweight or obese, rising to more than a third by the time they reach secondary school. The ban follows an extended sugar tax on pre-packaged drinks such as milkshakes and sweetened yoghurt drinks, and local authorities can now block fast food shops from opening near schools.

“a welcome and long-awaited step” — Katharine Jenner, Obesity Health Alliance, via Gulf Times

The Sun in Malaysia ran the same figures and quoted health minister Ashley Dalton saying the government wants to make the NHS focus on preventing as well as treating sickness.

How each outlet framed it

• Gulf Times — the full package: the ban, the sugar tax extension, school-zone limits on fast food and reactions from health charities.
• The Sun — a shorter world-news brief built around the government's prevention message and the calorie estimate.

What we don't know yet: The 7.2 billion calories and 20,000 fewer children are the government's own projections. Both reports rely on the same official figures, so neither offers an independent measure of whether the ban changes what children actually eat.