14 DAY TRIAL // While junk food represents a serious danger to the health of all of us, perhaps it’s children who are the most exposed to it and to its negative effects. This is also the main approach of a new series of ads to be launched in the UK, targeting not the children who can’t stop eating junk food, but the parents who can’t say no to them and are, this way, “killing them with kindness.”
The aggressive, but straight to the point advertising campaign supported by the British Government advocates for a healthier lifestyle for our children, which should start with eliminating the temptations, and the dangers, of junk food. The ultimate goal of the campaign would be, of course, bringing down the obesity rate that has reached heights not even anticipated, not to mention encountered before.
“The ads, to be screened and featured in magazines next month, tell parents that inactive children who eat poor diets are more likely to suffer from heart disease, cancer and diabetes. They will be urged to let children play outdoors and lead more active lifestyles themselves,” the Daily Mail informs about the new initiative. Even more, it seems that no expense will be spared, as neither will be any feelings for fear of offending those with a weaker heart.
For instance, one of the ads is said to show, close-up, three youngsters of whom anyone could swear a happy life lies ahead of them. Right below them, a caption will read, “One of us will die of heart disease or diabetes when we're older because of the foods our parents let us eat now,” in what will certainly prove to be a very efficient method of laying the cards on the table.
The campaign will be launched in January, and will include both televised ads and magazine spreads. The British media reports that it was prompted mostly by a Department of Health report, warning that 1.6 million families were deemed at “high risk” from obesity. According to the same source cited above, the report warned that, “Food has become an expression of love in ‘at risk’ families. Parents are prioritizing filling up their kids over feeding them the right foods. Snacking has become a way of life.”