Food companies sign EU ad pledge

An alliance of food companies including Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Mars and Burger King have signed a European Union pledge to stop marketing junk food to children under 12 years old.
The group of 11 companies, which represent more than 50% of the food and beverage advertising spend in the EU, have agreed to stop running junk food ads on TV, in print and on the internet to under-12s by the end of 2008.

As in my previous post, I put up a story concerning child obesity. I have decided to show this story in particular, as it follows on from the previous one and shows a vast improvement. It is good that the bigger companies are getting involved as they will have a bigger influence on the market. Child obesity is currently a growing phenomenon and one that is being looked into deeply. I stated in my last post that, no matter how small, some form of action should be taken and it is good to see that it has. This will let people know of what is being done and also inform people about what types of food they should not be eating regularly. Although I believe that it could be argued that this is just another form of advertising for bigger companies. By showing people they are taking action, they are promoting their company and making themselves look like one of the "good people". Therefore leading people to believe that they are supporting what they want. Overall though I like to think that this is a positive step taken by the bigger companies as there needs to be some sort of start towards tackling child obesity.