UK to ban all online junk food advertising to tackle obesity

Downing Street has unveiled plans to implement a total ban on online junk food advertising – the toughest digital marketing restrictions in the world – in an attempt to tackle the growing obesity crisis. The new rules, which go much further than proposals in the summer, would affect foods deemed to be too high in fat, salt, and sugar. However, a range of foods, from avocados and marmite to jam and cream, could be caught alongside what is viewed as traditional “junk food”. While health campaigners have welcomed the proposed ban, which is now subject to a six-week consultation, it has stunned the advertising industry, which has called it indiscriminate and draconian. If implemented, the ban would affect digital marketing, from ads on Facebook, to paid-search results on Google, text message promotions, and social media activity on Twitter and Instagram. Breaches of the new rules would be enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority, which has the power to ban ads that break the UK code.