The end of fast food commercials for little Timmy — or at least a reduction in the advertising campaigns aimed at small children — is the goal of the Alberta Policy Coalition for Cancer Prevention (APCCP).
The APCCP met yesterday morning with other health-advocacy groups to discuss the direction of the APCCP and the steps it will take to control the marketing aimed at children in Alberta.
University of Alberta researchers have undertaken studies that show Albertan children are exposed to seven TV ads per hour, and that 80 per cent of those ads relate to unhealthy products. According to these studies, children in Alberta have some of the highest exposures to this kind of advertising.
“What’s really hard is resisting the persuasive marketing“, said Dr. Kim Raine, co-director of the APCCP and professor in the school of public health at the U of A.
“What we’re trying to do is actually educate the public more on how our environment is constraining our choices, how there needs to be some control on that environment, and how the industry shouldn’t be allowed no restrictions on their attempt to coerce kids to consume things that aren’t good for them.”
