The fight against epidemics is hard because you have to make sacrifices again and again. on habits. On preferences. On freedoms. The fight is particularly hard when it comes to pleasurable things like eating and drinking. That is why the obesity epidemic is even more difficult to tackle than the Covid 19 pandemic – especially since obesity is spread even more easily than the corona virus. You don’t even need aerosols, the power of your thoughts is enough. A wrong idea of what is good, tasty and important. A false longing for consolation.
This world of ideas is specifically promoted by advertising. The consequences are numerous diseases, immense health costs and a lot of suffering. Because very few people manage to resist the temptations of the food industry. The state should protect them all the more. For example, through broad advertising bans for unhealthy food.
These are very effective, as studies show again and again. For example, the 2019 ban on junk food advertising on London’s transport may have prevented nearly 100,000 cases of obesity. At least that’s the conclusion of scientists from the University of Sheffield and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine from their study, for which they compared shopping behavior in London with that outside the British capital, where there was no advertising ban. Advertising has a powerful impact on what people consume. That’s why advertising for unhealthy things makes you sick.
Advertising for unhealthy food thwarts all parents’ efforts in one fell swoop
The traffic light government has partly understood this, they are planning to ban advertising junk food in children’s programs. It’s a first step, after all: children watch 20,000 commercials a year, most of them for unhealthy eating. This thwarts all parental efforts in one fell swoop. Then Children who see fast food ads are twice as likely to eat fast food like other children, even if their parents rarely eat fast food.
But the plans of the traffic light are half-hearted. Children don’t just watch children’s programs. Young people and adults also deserve protection. Overall, advertising for harmful products must be recognized for what it is: a dangerous virus that gets into people’s heads and can make people very ill. You can’t cushion the consequences with footnotes under the advertisement, nor with lax restrictions on the evening program. Whether it’s junk food, tobacco or alcohol, it’s high time we put a stop to all advertising of things that promote early death. And it must not be made of chocolate.