To protect children: Özdemir wants to restrict advertising for junk food

Minister of Nutrition Özdemir wants to ban advertising for chips, chocolate and other unhealthy snacks aimed at children in the future. Commercials, for example, should only run at certain times. Resistance also comes from traffic lights.

Federal Food Minister Cem Özdemir wants to largely ban advertising for unhealthy food to protect children. The ban should apply to television and radio programs and online networks such as YouTube from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., he said in Berlin.

Voluntary commitments by the advertising industry have led to nothing, said Özdemir. That’s why strict rules are needed now. At the same time, he emphasized that he was not demanding a “general advertising ban”. “But the advertising must no longer be aimed specifically at children.”

The definition of “aimed at children” should be deliberately “broad,” said the minister: It has been shown that children watch television between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m may be advertised.

The term children in this context means under 14 years of age. The determination of excessive sugar, fat or salt content should be based on the nutritional value calculations of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Özdemir also wants to ban advertising for such junk food in newspapers, magazines and brochures if the design is obviously aimed at children. In addition, there should be no outdoor advertising within a radius of 100 meters from schools, day care centers, playgrounds or other leisure facilities for children, and no sponsorship. The whole thing is to be controlled by the market surveillance authorities of the federal states.

praise from professionals

The German Obesity Society said Özdemir had “made a big hit”. Childhood obesity is a major health problem and unhealthy advertising is a key factor. According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the state owes children the “maximum achievable level of health”, but not the advertising industry the maximum achievable level of income from junk food advertising.

The spokeswoman for the German Alliance for Non-Communicable Diseases (DANK) and managing director of the German Diabetes Society, Barbara Bitzer, called Özdemir’s plans a “milestone” for children’s health. Scientific research showed that many of the most popular shows among children under 14 are not cartoons, but family shows and football broadcasts. These also run late in the evening.

Resistance from the FDP and the coalition

FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai, on the other hand, said he was always in favor of personal responsibility playing a major role in politics. “In my view, bans are useless here.” The agricultural policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Gero Hocker, announced that Özdemir would “not find a majority” within the coalition. Apparently he is pursuing the goal of “making every underage child into an underage citizen”.

Union faction deputy Steffen Bilger criticized in the “Rheinische Post”: “Özdemir paves the way for dirigisme, bureaucracy and state paternalism.” How the minister intends to pinpoint the products that he considers harmful “remains just as open as the question of how he wants to determine which advertising is clearly aimed at children”. It is “completely unclear” whether advertising bans will do anything at all in the fight against obesity.

Draft needs to be agreed

According to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the draft law is to be coordinated with the other departments of the federal government in the first quarter of 2023. The federal states and associations are to be consulted and statements evaluated. The revised draft is also to be submitted to the EU Commission for notification. Then the Bundestag would have to decide on the draft.

According to the federal government, around 15 percent of 3- to 17-year-olds in Germany are overweight, and almost six percent are obese. Being overweight in childhood often persists for life and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus in later life phases.