Junk food ad restriction law gets preliminary okay
Ministerial Committee on Legislation gives nod to Labor MK Orit Noked's proposal to limit advertisements for junk food before 9 pm; law also restricts use of celebrities in advertisements for unhealthy chow
Are kids eating unhealthily? Maybe the time has come to limit the attempts to persuade them to consume junk food.
The Ministerial Committee on Legislation on Sunday gave preliminary approval to a law that would restrict the advertisement of food deemed by a special public committee to be harmful to children's health.
The law was sponsored by MK Orit Noked (Labor) and is scheduled to be voted on by the Knesset plenum this Wednesday.
According to the proposed legislation, television advertisements for junk food would be prohibited before 9 pm. A special public committee would be set up in order to select what food products would be labeled harmful to children's health and thus subject to the restrictions.
In addition, junk food marketing would be barred from using celebrities or famous illustrated figures in their ads.
What is more, the advertisements that do run would have to feature a warning label similar to cigarette pack warnings stating that "excessive consumption of the product is harmful to one's health."
According to the proposed measure, the price tag for the obesity in Israel stands at around $2.65 billion per year.
MK Noked remarked that the average child sees nearly 40,000 television ads each year and that children are exposed to advertisements for junk food every five minutes on average.
The legislation suggestion also mentioned that many other countries have enacted similar measures.
One reason for this could be recent attention given to the subject in the media and through films such as 'Super Size Me', which was released in 2004. The film depicted the harmful effects of eating food at McDonald's and focused on the intensive advertising campaign fast food restaurant engage in vis-à-vis children.
Noked said in response to the news of the proposal's approval that "the obesity epidemic is an epidemic of this century and children don't pass judgment on the messages they are exposed to in the media. Thus, it is my obligation as a legislator to eradicate this phenomenon and to look out for children's health."
