Government backs anti-obesity drive with £75m marketing campaign

by Bill Britt Marketing 23-Jan-08, 13:00

LONDON - The government's £372m healthy living initiative was unveiled today by Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, and the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls.

The plan includes a £75m marketing campaign to support and empower parents to make changes to their children's diet and increase levels of physical activity. There is also a move toward a single food labelling scheme. The government will adopt a Healthy Food Code of Good Practice, after consultation with the food and drink industry, that will include proposals to develop a single, simple and effective approach to food labelling, and to challenge the industry (including restaurants and food outlets) to support individuals and families in reducing their consumption of saturated fat, salt and sugar.

OFCOM has also been instructed to bring forward its review of the restrictions already introduced on the advertising of unhealthy foods to children.

The Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, said: "This cross-government strategy on obesity has come at a vitally important time. It has never been more challenging to maintain a healthy weight as it is today. A unified solution must be found and this is an important first stage in engaging the whole of society in this issue. Physical activity, healthy eating, balanced marketing and promotion of food to children and clear and consistent food labelling are all key components in beating the obesity time bomb."

Comments

Paul Connell - 28/01/2008

The scheme once again sounds potentially a good one. I hope they are intending to work WITH FMCG's, Supermarkets etc to develop partnerships in the scheme rather than solely producing a document that companies can pick and choose whether they abide by it. With regards to new food labelling.... Consumer awareness of health/nutrition through food labelling is already having significant effects on purchasing behaviour and company focus, but unless these recommendations are both practical and strict they will serve little more purpose than cluttering packaging and confusing consumers further.