Cancer Council criticises use of Warner Bros characters in marketing to kids
The Cancer Council of NSW has criticised the use of cartoon characters in marketing unhealthy foods to children, a week after a Roy Morgan study which revealed the favourite cartoon characters among Australian kids was released.
The Young Australians Survey found that the Warner Brothers-owned Batman and Superman were the favourite super heroes among children aged six-13 in 2011.
Clare Hughes, nutritionist at Cancer Council NSW told Mumbrella: “Recent research shows that companies are using cartoon characters to promote more than 240 foods which are high in sugar, salt and fat. These characters are cute, fun and appeal to kids. But when 70% of foods featuring characters are unhealthy, these characters are sending our kids all the wrong messages about what foods they should be eating”.
The research carried out by CCNSW last year showed that 81% of the products using character licensing stocked by supermarket chain Coles were classified as unhealthy. Of these products Warner Bros promotional characters were described as dominant among this range.
“Cartoon characters do become very appealing brand ambassadors that are enticing to children. But the promotional characters highlighted in the Roy Morgan research may also hit a nostalgic spot with parents, as they too would have grown up with Batman and Superman and in turn may be more likely to purchase a brand with these characters on them. Ideally what we would really like to see is promotional characters being used to encourage kids to eat healthy foods,” said Hughes.
Warner Bros declined to comment.
The Roy Morgan survey asked children “what is your favourite super hero?” Warner Brother’s characters fared well in the survey, with DC comics characters taking the top two slots. The top ten characters overall:
- Batman
- Superman
- Spiderman
- Wonder Woman
- Iron Man
- Ben 10
- The Incredible Hulk
- X Men
- Catwoman
- The Green Lantern
I know…. let’s shoe-horn ourselves into something about which we have nothing to say and make something to say about nothing…. for gawds sakes!! give it a rest PR people. It’s a non-story making out to be more of a non-story….
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Do we have to go over this tripe again?
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Yes ban all cartoon characters immediately.
Kids might start jumping off buildings thinking they can fly.
They might encourage kids to paint road tunnel openings on rock mountains that’ll cause the death of countless motorists.
They could encourage kids first to sit atop giant Acme branded rockets in the hope of being blasted into outer space.
Yes, lets ban kids cartoon characters immediately.
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And so there is empirical evidence proving that these foods cause cancer in kids?? If not, then what on earth has this got to do with the Cancer Council? Have they become some sort of general health advisory body?
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I almost forgot the obligatory AdGrunt / Cancer Council post.
If you feel that tackling cancer deserves more serious attention than trying to ban everything in sight, then why not consider donating to Cure Cancer. http://www.cure.org.au
What do they do? As their name suggests, they aim to cure cancer by funding young, innovative researchers.
What don’t they do? Run around like self-justifying lobbyists, pointing at everything and demanding it be banned, whilst ignoring informed choice, parental responsibility and the lack of evidence to support their pot-banging claims.
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@Simon, I think this is what you are looking for.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancerto.....sk/obesity
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Huzzah for AdGrunt!! Well said that man/woman!! ’tis indeed trip.
Simon – it’s actually some report from back in September 2011!!! FFS!!! The thing you need to focus on is AdGrunt’s comment about Cancer Council NSW:
“…ignoring informed choice, parental responsibility and the lack of evidence to support their pot-banging claims.”
“…ignoring informed choice, parental responsibility and the lack of evidence to support their pot-banging claims.”
To paraphrase Kryten…. “Now I realise that technically speaking that I’ve mentioned it twice, but I thought that it was such a big thing that it was worth mentioning twice. :
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It probably won’t fly, but im just putting it out there.
How about the parent of children educate their kids on healthy habits and control what their kids eat? but hey, then again finger pointing is so much easier. Agree with the comments above, its a tired subject
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