Madam, - With the release of the third phase of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) code on advertising targeted at children now imminent (April 19th), one hopes that the members of the BCI will have noted the comments made by Dr David Ashton from the Imperial College School of Medicine in London.
Writing in a recent issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Dr Ashton points to studies which reveal declining energy intake in children and argues that the main reason behind the obesity epidemic is reduced energy expenditure and not energy-dense foods.
He is quoted by the British regional newspaper The Western Mail as commenting: "Blaming the advertising industry for childhood obesity may attract popular support, but I'm afraid it misses the point. The real scandal is the decline in physical activity among today's children, which is overwhelmingly more important than any marginal effect of food advertising."
Dr Ashton's comments support the position of the European Association of Communications Agencies that the causes of obesity, particularly in children, are multiple and complex and that over-emphasis on restricting TV and radio advertising campaigns, without addressing other potential causes, will prove entirely futile. - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL CULLEN, Editor, Marketing Magazine, Sandycove, Co Dublin.