The problem in the regulation comes from the term particular appeal. If a program is mostly viewed by adults then according to the regulation advertisers are still allowed to advertise during the program. This means soap operas and game shows that adults and children may watch together are an appropriate way of advertising. Also this allows advertisers to advertise around children's programs if the programs prior to and after have mainly an adult audience.
In Britain, the government has banned airing advertisements around the Bratz program which consists of about 128,000 child viewers. Programs such as the Bratz which are aimed at children fall under the advertising ban. However, Britain's most popular soap opera "Coronation Street" is available for companies to advertise during. "Coronation Street" has about 704,000 four to ten year old children watching.
Because the most popular shows with children and adults are typically aired before 9pm, new legislation is being considered to change the regulation. Advocacy groups are pushing for the regulation to extend the ban to incorporate the time 9pm before marketers can advertise junk food. This change will increase the effectiveness of the ban drastically. The current ban on junk food reduces the exposure of junk food ads to younger children by about 51%. If the ban were to include the 9pm clause the exposure would be reduced by 89%
Before Australia considers adopting this regulation on advertising junk food to children, they must analyze the successes and failures of Britain's current regulation. From the statistics they may feel that changing the regulation to extend the ban to 9 pm would be more effective. Australia needs to make sure that there are also no loop holes around advertising to children, such as advertising during adult programs. I feel that this may be effective if they did some research before adopting the regulation.
Information for this post provided by UK ban on junk food ads not working
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