Upon turning 50, I decided to change my diet and cut out all fast food. After making mind up about this decision, I’ve noticed fast food advertising everywhere! Advertisers sponsor TV programs that are very popular with both children and adults. Usually, these foods are advertised between 6pm and 10pm at night when the companies know that children and parents will be watching. I saw, for example, two different pizza companies advertising their pizzas practically one ad after the other. This makes me so angry because it also effects people on low incomes.
Why can there not be a tax on fast food? And the healthy food put down to the lower price so people can choose the healthier one? I know over the years there have been different campaigns, such as the campaign to have restaurants and fast food companies print and display the calories of the foods they offer on menus and labels. It would be better if television programs were sponsored by products other than fast food products, perhaps new cars, beauty products, nature tourism or whatever suggests a healthy lifestyle. The government successfully stopped the advertising of cigarettes and beer at sporting venues such as football stadiums where there is already the smoking ban. So why cannot they introduce high taxes for fast food and the money raised could be spent on healthy food programmes and healthy food advertising? I believe that until the fast food companies are taxed heavily (like cigarettes) or are limited about what they can sponsor, we won’t see the effective change in society that needs to happen.