Right: An "anti" poster which graphically illustrates the calorifies in a sweet snack.Further implications
It would appear that the federal government is reluctant to take legislative action in an attempt to regulate the advertising of fast food to children. Part of this reluctance may be because it doubts the impact of fast food advertising in shaping the behaviour of children and their parents. One of the recommendations of the 'Weighing It Up: Obesity in Australia' report is that there be an investigation into the effect of fast food advertising on the eating behaviour of children and other vulnerable groups.The 'Weighing It Up: Obesity in Australia' report also recommends using a social advertising campaign to help educate the public about the dangers of obesity and fast food consumption. It refers to the effectiveness of campaigns such as the anti smoking Quit campaign and the anti drink driving campaigns. Despite this the report clearly has reservations about the probable effectiveness of any education campaign aimed at reducing obesity and the consumption of fast food. Whether these reservations stem from a lack of faith in advertising per se or from the belief that government-funded advertising would be unable to compete with corporate fast food advertising is not made clear.
It will be interesting to see what results the investigation into the impact of fast food advertising yields. If fast food advertising is shown to have a significant negative effect on the eating habits of children and others then there will be a clear incentive for the government to regulate it directly. Also of interest will be the extent to which self-regulation succeeds. The 'Weighing It Up: Obesity in Australia' report supports fast food industry self-regulation of both the advertising of their products and the improvement of the quality of their products. Again, if this is also shown to be ineffective then again there will be an incentive for government regulation.
When in opposition, the current government was highly critical of their predecessors' failure to adequately regulate fast food advertising. They accused the former government of being under the financial influence of the multinational fast food companies. The Rudd government is now showing a similar reluctance to regulate the fast food industry. There are those who have suggested that they too are being influenced by these extremely powerful corporations.