Junk food’s marketing revolution has sparked ‘staggering changes’ in Irish children’s health

Ireland is seeing “staggering changes in children’s health” that are “in direct relation to how junk food marketing has evolved”, according to Chris Macey, Director of Advocacy at the Irish Heart Foundation.

Irish five- to nine-year-olds rank ninth in Europe for overweight and obesity while 10- to 19-year-olds rank tenth in Europe, according to the WHO’s European regional obesity report 2022, which was published last May.

Some 20.9 per cent of girls and 17.4 per cent of boys are living with overweight and obesity, according to the Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) study, which was published in 2020.

Social media posts by brands like “don’t let anyone tell you that pizza isn’t healthy” or images online of chocolate eggs with toast soldiers for breakfast are misleading for children, Mr Macey said.

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Mimi Tatlow-Golden, a senior lecturer in developmental psychology and childhood at the Open University, whose research found that young children know their food brands before their ABCs said junk food marketing is “multi-systemic” and requires “joined-up thinking” to fix.

“We had such an inspirational move when a certain minister brought in a smoking ban and at the time many people sat around scoffing saying it’ll never happen, and it was a brilliant piece of public health policy. Why can’t we do it again?”

“Kids are exposed to more food marketing on TikTok and YouTube and in the last few years, everyone was using devices to keep themselves occupied in various ways. I’m not a proponent of the ‘screen time’ moral panic - I’m not saying screens are one thing or another - I’m interested in this idea of food marketing and how does it create the worlds in which families and young people and children live.”

Tatlow-Golden worked on an Irish study at UCD with Dr Brendan Rooney, published in 2020, which looked at teenagers’ responses to social media advertising.

“We looked at eye tracking, what they’re looking at on social media, and where they’re looking, and how long they’re looking for, and who did they like based on what ads were in their timelines, and what content would they share based on social media profiles that had food ads or healthy food ads or non-food items, and what content would they share.”

“What we found, using all of these ways of measuring teenagers’ responses to the ads, was that they liked the unhealthy food ads best, and liked their peers best when they had unhealthy food ads in their timelines.”

Dr Siobhan Donohue, a mother of three children aged between nine and 15 years, who worked as a GP until 2013, says exhausted parents are already carrying a huge mental load and are therefore unable to battle against constant ‘pester power’ from children.

“When you think of the psychology behind all of this marketing and the amount of time and money the food companies put into it, it’s paying them, you’re up against huge money behind these big companies.”

“Parents, particularly mothers in many cases, are exhausted. They do not have the mental capacity at the end of a long day to add another thing on top of what they already do, and say ‘no you can’t have the junk food’. You run out of the ability to say ‘no’ eventually.”

A spokesman for the department of health told the Irish Times that the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022, which has completed all stages in the Seanad and has passed the first three stages in the Dáil, will dissolve the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and establish a new regulator, Coimisiún na Meán.

“As the Department responsible for public health policy, the Department of Health would expect to contribute to, and be consulted on, the making of any codes by Coimisiún na Meán relating to the advertisement of food or beverages at children,” the spokesman added.

Meanwhile, Orla Twomey, CEO of the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland, said the ASAI is “very effective” in implementing “the highest standards” in advertising.

She said the ASAI’s code editions are “future proofed to encompass industry and societal change. Primary responsibility for compliance with the code rests with advertisers which means that the ASAI can take action regardless of which medium or platform an advertisement appears on. Media in Ireland, both off and online, support the ASAI code and its implementation.”

Meanwhile, Professor Colette Kelly, director of University of Galway’s Health Promotion Research Centre, said fast food environments around post-primary schools are associated with less fruit and vegetable intake. Three quarters of post primary schools are located within a kilometre of fast food restaurants, she explained.

“Often people assume that teenagers don’t care about nutrition and that they don’t know about nutrition. But actually we found that they do and it’s difficult for them to eat healthily because the snacks that are healthy are too expensive for them.”

“Some children are happy with chicken fillet rolls and sweets and treats, but some would eat healthier options if they were available. Often when they’re looking at ‘what can I afford?’, it’s things like the chipper.”

“It’s hard to make healthy food choices when they cost more. That’s an important message.”

Dr Aileen McGloin Director of Nutrition at safefood said 18 per cent of the calories a child between five to 12 years old eats on average comes from junk food.

“That’s very far from the guidelines which say that children should get small amounts of junk food and not every day.”