Jamie Oliver leads calls for junk food advertising watershed
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is leading calls for a ban on advertising unhealthy foods prior to the 9pm watershed in his latest healthy eating crusade.
Junk food firms have already unilaterally banned advertising their products during programmes aimed at children but Oliver wants to see this taken a step further by extending this ban to early evening family entertainment.
Singling out popular ITV talent show Britain’s Got Talent when calling for a ban, Oliver wants all commercials pushing foods which are high in fat and sugar to be taken off-air during such programmes in order to counter a childhood obesity epidemic.
Speaking to a panel of MPs on the health Select Committee Oliver said: “We shouldn’t be advertising junk food high in salt, fat and sugar before 9 O’clock, end of story.
“We need to go where the kids are really congregated which are at the big shows, pre-9 O’clock - Britain’s Got Talent - and where they can get a lot of these messages.
“Also, online is an absolute minefield that we just haven’t got our head around. I think there’s loads we can do very, very simply. We need it addressed.”
Oliver pointed out that as many as 13 junk food adverts could be screened during a single episode of Britain’s Got Talent , a situation which he described as ‘inappropriate’.