Authors: Morley, Belinda¹; Chapman, Kathy²; Mehta, Kaye³; King, Lesley⁴; Swinburn, Boyd⁵; Wakefield, Melanie¹

Source: Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Volume 32, Number 4, August 2008 , pp. 341-347(7)

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Abstract:

Objective: To assess parents' concern regarding television food advertising to children and the marketing methods used, their awareness of existing regulations and support for strengthening restrictions, and to determine whether these factors differ across sociodemographic groups.

Methods: A randomly selected sample of 400 parents of children under 14 years in all Australian States and Territories completed the cross-sectional telephone survey in March 2007. Data were weighted by metropolitan and regional population proportions.

Results: Parents were concerned about unhealthy food advertising to children (67.3%), use of popular personalities (67.7%), toys (76.4%), and advertising volume (79.7%). Older parents, of high socioeconomic status (SES), with fewer household televisions were more likely to be concerned. Only 47.4% of parents were aware of current regulations and those with a tertiary education were more likely to be aware: odds ratio (OR) 2.96 (95% CI: 1.55-5.65). Parents supported a change from self-regulation (92.8%), a ban on unhealthy food advertising to children (86.8%) and, to a lesser extent, a ban on all food advertising (37.3%).

Conclusions and implications: There was widespread parental concern about food advertising and strong support for tighter restrictions. Given that the existing regulations rely on complaints and awareness is low, particularly among parents with lower education levels, a system of external monitoring and enforcement is essential. Clearly more effective regulations are needed to protect children and parental support for this is high.

Keywords: children; food advertising; obesity; television

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-6405.2008.00252.x

Affiliations: 1: Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, The Cancer Council Victoria 2: The Coalition on Food Advertising to Children and The Cancer Council New South Wales 3: The Coalition on Food Advertising to Children and Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Flinders University of South Australia 4: NSW Centre for Overweight and Obesity, University of Sydney, New South Wales 5: School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, Victoria

Publication date: 2008-08-01

Related content

• In this: publication
• By this: publisher
• In this Subject: Public Health
• By this author: Morley, Belinda ;  Chapman, Kathy ;  Mehta, Kaye ;  King, Lesley ;  Swinburn, Boyd ;  Wakefield, Melanie

Website © Publishing Technology. Article copyright remains with the publisher, society or author(s) as specified within the article.

• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• Information for advertisers