Well-being, advertising and another product placement consultation

 By Falina Sleepyhead

We recently heard the depressing news that the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, has decided that the most appropriate people to fund the Government’s Change 4 Life initiative - which encourages young people and their families to eat healthier foods and be more active in order to support their well-being – could include the junk food industry.  And in return for their cash, the food and drink manufacturers will receive ‘access to the Change 4 Life brand’ and the ‘expectation of non-regulatory approaches’ for their industries.  In his speech the Secretary of State for Health pointed out that Britain has the highest obesity rates in Europe, but then his answer to this social and health problem is to suggest that businesses whose commercial activities may depend on promoting food high in fat, salt and sugar, should be involved in a nationwide campaign to promote healthy eating.  Although the USA may lead the world in obesity rates – with more than 34% of adults affected – almost 25% of adults in England are obese, which is a public health concern, in addition to having a negative impact on the well-being of many people.  And obesity is already prevalent in children and young people, with statistics for 2008-09 showing that 9.6% of children aged 4-5 years were obese with this figure rising to 18.3% by the age of 10-11 years.   

With children and young people being particularly susceptible to the power of brands and advertising, a possible association between the Change 4 Life campaign and the junk food industries will not only damage the integrity of this campaign, but could actually result in an easy marketing exercise for the junk food companies to reach out to the 450,000 children, young people and families who have joined the Change 4 Life initiative.  And the Health Secretary’s offer to look for ‘non-regulatory approaches’ in working with the food and drink industry, has caused concern amongst leading food campaigners and other organisations who are concerned with protecting the well-being of children and young people. 

However, there is a positive action you can take to protect the well-being of our society – earlier this year the Department for Culture, Media and Sport consulted  on whether we should have product placement on UK commercial television programmes and many of us, including nef, opposed this suggestion; just thinking of even more advertising and marketing in a society already saturated with commercialism is enough to lower anyone’s well-being.  Work by Tim Kasser and other psychologists has shown how people who are more materialistic have higher rates of depression and anxiety, are more prone to unpleasant emotions, and more likely to fall to drug and alcohol abuse, and are more likely to be selfish and disregard the environment.  They also report lower life satisfaction and vitality. Allowing further opportunities for companies to remind us about why we would be happier with their products is a recipe for disaster.

And although many people and organisations have expressed their opposition to these proposed changes - expressing concerns about junk food marketing and the loss of integrity to our television programmes - the then Government pushed ahead with the proposal.  However, before product placement can be allowed on our television screens, there has to be another consultation to amend the Broadcasting Code.  Ofcom has responsibility for the Code and recently they launched their consultation on amending the Broadcasting Code to allow product placement on TV.  We have until 17 September to respond to this consultation – in which it might also be helpful to remind the Coalition Government that they said in their Programme for Government that they would be willing to 'take action to protect children from excessive commercialisation'.