UK Mayors pledge to stop junk food advertising

Nine UK mayors have backed Jamie Oliver’s ‘AdEnough’ campaign to stop outdoor junk-food advertising, with a commitment to banning junk food marketing across the areas they control and protect the health and wellbeing of their communities.

The Mayors have come together with a pledge to help stop children being exposed to harmful junk food advertising on public transport. The commitment means any Mayor introducing bus franchising powers will ban the adverts, with the same ban introduced on Metro systems, over the coming years.

Gerry Taylor, our spokesperson for the commercial determinants of health and DPH for Sunderland, has welcomed today’s announcement by the Metro Mayors, saying:

“89% of deaths in England are attributable to largely avoidable illness and disease which is linked to the consumption of unhealthy food and drink, including many cancers, respiratory, heart and liver disease, and mental health disorders.

“We know that unhealthy food and drink advertising influences both purchasing and consumption of these harmful products. It therefore makes absolute sense to introduce tighter restrictions on advertising in order to support efforts to reduce the numbers of people experiencing – and dying – from these conditions.

“Of course, this is not a silver bullet, and we need to implement a whole raft of other measures across the country to reduce the numbers of people dying from avoidable conditions. However, the Metro Mayors have taken a very positive step in the right direction by committing to this ban on cleverly targeted ad campaigns, sending a clear signal of their intent to tackle the factors that negatively influence our health.”