A suburb in Adelaide is apparently investigating whether it can ban junk food ads from various advertising spaces like bus shelters around schools in the area.
Councillor Jason Veliskou of suburb Marion reportedly told ABC Radio in Adelaide junk food advertising didn’t align with the council’s community values, given there’s loads of parks, sports clubs and community recreation activities around.
“I don’t think it is an appropriate place [outside schools] to be targeting children to sell them food that is not good for them, especially as it is such a big problem for us,” he said, according to the ABC.
“There’s been a huge increase in obesity rates, one in four of our kids are overweight, and I guess it is something that we can possibly do in council to not add to the problem.
“What sparked this off was I was driving back from a council meeting and saw an advert by a certain fast food chain … they basically had a teenage boy, or teenage-looking boy, looking longingly at a piece of fried food before they were putting it in their mouth,” he added.
The comments come after the ACT also said it was hoping to ban ads for unhealthy food from government ACTION buses, as a lot of school children use the buses.
Apart from junk food, the call also included a ban on advertising alcohol, gambling and fossil fuels.
However industry bosses ridiculed the idea of banning the ads, perpetuating the idea the capital has become a “nanny state” which “had reach absurd proportions”.
