‘Who’s deciding what’s bad for us?’: Dee Madigan rails against junk food ad bans
Advertising expert Dee Madigan used the closing moments of the Outdoor Media Association’s conference in Sydney on Thursday to rail against the pending ban on junk food advertising.
From July, advertising for junk food will not be permitted on Adelaide public transport, with calls for the Albanese government to enforce a nationwide ban.
The Greens have repeatedly called for any such ban to be extended to television, radio, and online advertising. The product categories under fire include chocolate, lollies, confectionary, desserts, ice creams, soft drinks, processed meats and chips.
Get banning gambling ads first
London’s ban on junk food ads on transport reduced sales by 7%, and saved the health and welfare system an estimated $554 million, thanks to reduced diabetes and heart disease.
Ad Execs. Ad execs should decide what’s good for all. What they don’t know isn’t worth knowing.
Ahh yes, the people who make a lot of money from products that cause disease and early death, destroy families and communities, overburden health and social systems, and undermine economic productivity are best placed to decide what people should see and what preferences they have – they’ve done wonderfully up to now.
Dee’s comments are 100% correct.
Simple as that.
This is akin to saying let’s not stamp out the obvious fraud because the people conducting the less obvious fraud are still getting away with it.
Dee’s strawman about the 80’s low-fat trend is sloppy and disingenuous. @Jane Doe nails it. Very luckily for us, we have an excellent socialised medical system. But it is already strained, against projections of much growth in demand.
We can reduce that strain by being healthier; preventative rather than dealing with symptoms. That comes with both a nutritional diet and regular exercise. A pro-active and holistic approach, not a reverse-engineering pill. This policy is just one facet to that end.
If the government can help limit our discretionary whims in this regard without trampling on our fundamental liberties, then that’s good governance. It’s not as if people are waiting for the ad break, and then rage at the imposition on their freedoms when they don’t see a junk food ad.
Her specious logic places Dee with such fruitloops as the Food Neutrality expert insisting that to criticise the nutrition of a donut is class-ist, and the Breakfast Foods CEO welcoming the growth of cereal consumed at dinnertime as a cost-effective meal alternative. Maybe she should just stick to overlaughing at Wil’s prompts.