Cartoons make kids fat?

Cartoons are making our children fat. And not just because they spend an excessive amount of time in front of the television watching them. Promotional packaging using cartoon characters, celebrities, and tie-in competitions and giveaways have become standard in the junk food industry, and consequently integral to the childhood obesity problem, the Cancer Council NSW says.

In what is says is the first study to examine the extent and nature of food promotions at point of sale, the council conducted research in nine supermarkets across the Sydney metropolitan area. The survey revealed 82 per cent of all promotional gimmicks were being used on junk foods, and the vast bulk were aimed at children. "There is no doubt that promotional tactics are a ploy being adopted by unhealthy food companies to try to sell their product," said Kathy Chapman, a nutritionist at the Cancer Council. "It's little wonder Australian children are facing an obesity epidemic, with unhealthy food companies employing such persuasive tactics that could rival the big tobacco companies."

The highest level of cartoon and movie promotional material was found on the packaging of confectionary, followed by dairy snacks and snack foods - all classified as high in energy, saturated fat, sugar and salt, and low in dietary fibre and other essential ingredients.

Ms Chapman said food manufacturers and advertisers needed to be reined in, to stop the trend of dressing up junk food as "eye candy", encouraging overconsumption of unhealthy foods through schemes that encouraged children to "collect the complete set", and marketing low-nutritional food as part of an entertainment package. "You can tell what's on at the movies these days just by walking into a supermarket and looking at what's on the shelves," Ms Chapman said.

The large supermarket chains say they are not to blame for the panoply of sales gimmicks attached to products. "Our promotions aim to deliver the best-value products to as many of our customers as possible," a spokesman for Woolworths said. A spokesman for Coles Myer supermarkets said promotions for meat, fruit and vegetables also featured in their catalogues. "It is the domain and prerogative of the food companies to market those products in those ways." The chief executive of the Australasian Promotional Products Association, William Kestin, said the industry had been involved in several promotions to get children active.

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