Across the globe, more than 42 million children under the age of five are overweight or obese. And the rising tide of obesity extends into adulthood with 1.9 billion adults worldwide overweight, 600 million of which are classified as obese. But with experts desperately trying to find the answer, a poignant debate rages. Should fast food and sugary drink companies be allowed to advertise their junk food to children? Should TV ads promoting unhealthy food and drink be banned until the watershed, or wiped out altogether to save adults' waistlines too? A recent survey by the British Heart Foundation showed two fifths of parents are badgered by their children each week to buy food after seeing it advertised on TV, prompting the charity to deliver a 30,000 strong petition asking the Government to ban junk food adverts being shown before the 9pm watershed . A recent British Heart Foundation survey quizzed more than 2,000 parents with children under the age of 16. It showed two fifths of them are badgered by their children each week to buy food after seeing it advertised on TV, and feel that TV junk food adverts make it difficult to help their children eat a healthy diet. If you are a parent like me, you are probably nodding knowingly about now. There is plenty of scientific evidence to back up our frustrations too – showing that food commercials aimed at children focus on products high in fat, salt and sugar, and that youngsters develop positive attitudes towards the foods they see advertised. Despite regulation, children in the UK are still being exposed to more TV advertising for unhealthy than healthy food items, even at peak children's viewing times. What's more, regulation doesn't prevent the advertising of unhealthy products during programmes in the 'family entertainment' bracket, which include some of the most popular television programmes watched by children such as X-Factor and Britain's Got Talent. Seven in ten parents said they would like stricter regulation on the food industry's use of advertising. Good on them. The BHF has therefore just delivered a 30,000 strong petition, asking Government to ban junk food adverts from being shown before the 9pm watershed, to help protect our children from making unhealthy choices. Do you think the big food and drink manufacturers are unduly worried about this? Not when they can use one of our national icons to act as a giant advertising hoarding instead. Dr Sally Norton criticised Coca-Cola's sponsorship of the London Eye, noting it gives the company the chance to advertise to almost four million visitors a year . As someone at the forefront of managing obesity, I am furious that we are allowing blatant advertising to influence our children in other ways. Take Coca-Cola's sponsorship of the London Eye. With London Eye staff apparently wearing Coca-Cola branded uniforms to match the promotional material displayed around this family attraction, the company gets the chance to advertise to 3.75 million direct visitors a year. What's more, we will do plenty of advertising for them as we promote the 'Coca-Cola' London Eye, our top paid-for tourist attraction, around the world. As Coca-Cola knows all too well, linking its product to happy and exciting events such as visiting the London Eye is likely to forever link Coca-Cola to the idea of 'fun' in the minds of young, impressionable kids (and adults). Dr Norton backs the British Heart Foundation's bid to ban TV junk food ads before 9pm . Merlin Entertainments, who own the London Eye, said customers were able to make their own minds up about what to include in their diets. True – but the stark truth is that we aren't making the best choices, with two thirds of us overweight, a quarter of us obese and the NHS spending £6 billion pounds a year on obesity. That same 'failure of personal responsibility' meant the Government recognised that we needed extra help to tackle smoking – and widespread advertising bans and preventing smoking inside public buildings was implemented. In just the same way, we can't tackle obesity alone and need help – not giant Coca-Cola branded wheels reminding us of the sugar-laden temptations it promotes. Reducing TV advertising to children as the British Heart Foundation are suggesting, will, of course reduce the number of junk food advertisements children see. But, as the London Eye disgrace shows, junk food advertising isn't limited to TV. There are plenty of ways by which companies can market to kids or adults outside of TV advertising and the regulations for non-broadcast advertising are currently weak or non-existent. Our children seem to spend an increasing amount of time online, actively engaging in social media, and the junk food and drink manufacturers are busy providing games, social networking apps and other tools to promote their brands in cyberspace where the adults often fear to tread. A study by the Children's Food Campaign, of 100 websites featuring food likely to be bought or requested by children, found that more than 80 per cent of online adverts were associated with foods classed as less healthy and therefore not allowed to be advertised during children's TV programmes. Yet more than 75 per cent featured child-friendly characters, competitions, downloads and links to social media apps that directly engaged with kids. This is because the internet regulations don't prevent our kids being targeted and manipulated in this way. This 21st century method of targeting our teens is a sneaky way of tapping into a 'screen-obsessed' generation. She says: 'As Coca-Cola knows all too well, linking its product to happy and exciting events such as visiting the London Eye is likely to forever link Coca-Cola to the idea of 'fun' in the minds of impressionable kids' Sponsorship, whether of tourist attractions or sporting events like the Olympics, is another great way of ensuring that products trigger positive connections – harnessing the feel-good factor, which can last well into the future. Interestingly, research has also shown that companies seen to be involved in 'charitable' activities or corporate social responsibility can lead consumers to infer that their products are healthier and even lower in calories, leading them to consume more. Their good deeds create a 'health halo' effect, just in the same way labelling and packaging can persuade consumers that they are buying a healthy, 'natural' products for themselves or their children. Sneaky junk food advertising is invading all aspects of life – how can we resist? So, it's a big 'yes please' to banning junk food advertising before 9pm. But don't think for a minute that this will deter manufacturers of the high sugar, high fat, processed food that provides little, if any, nutritional benefit for our kids. Plenty of other advertising opportunities are open and they are busy working on how to manipulate us and our kids into buying more and more of the heavily processed rubbish that is damaging our health. To read more visit www.vavista.com .
Worldwide, 42 million children under the age of 5 are overweight or obese .
British Heart Foundation survey shows two thirds of parents feel badgered by their children each week to buy junk food after seeing it advertised .
Weight loss expert Dr Sally Norton backed calls for ban on TV ads .
And criticised Coca Cola's sponsorship of the London Eye attraction .