Pester Power or Parent Power?

‘Pester Power or Parent Power?’, a new report from the Children’s Food Campaign and Food Active, is based on research with 942 parents and carers of children across the UK, conducted with the support of the Impact on Urban Health . It reveals that:

• 9 in 10 (91%) parents taking part in the research say that the use of child-friendly characters on food and drink leads to their children requesting or pestering for those products.
• More than 8 in 10 (84%) parents agree that characters should be removed from unhealthy sweets, confectionery and snack products.
• Nearly 7 in 10 (68%) agreed that the use of children’s characters makes it more difficult to feed their children a healthy diet.

The report notes that whilst advertising regulations currently prohibit the targetting of children through use of popular cartoon characters or celebrities on products that are high in fat, salt and/or sugar (HFSS), there is still a major loophole in regulations which not apply to food and drink packaging. Children’s Food Campaign and Food Active are calling on the Government to consider regulating the use of child-friendly characters on food and drink packaging as part of the next stages of its childhood obesity action plan.