No more fast food ads on kids’ TV shows

Star: PETALING JAYA: Children will now be fed a healthier diet of TV programmes.
Fast food advertisers have agreed not to place advertisements during children's programmes or sponsor such shows with immediate effect.
Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia (4As) president Datuk Vincent Lee said new guidelines would set the standards of what could be advertised.
“It will encourage companies to develop and advertise foods we wish our children to consume more of,” he said in a statement here yesterday.
“A pre-vetting system will be introduced to ensure that only advertisements which meet the new standards make it to the television screens and inappropriate advertisements weeded out.”
Lee said fast food advertisers also pledged not to encourage commercials showing excessive food consumption or provide inaccurate or misleading information on nutritional value in any product.
Such commercials would also not imply that a product could replace a complete or balanced diet, he said.
According to the statement, the guidelines had been accepted by the Health Ministry, which also mandated the nutritional labelling of fast food.
Malaysian Advertisers Association president Peter Das said the advertising industry wanted to work with the Government in promoting a healthy lifestyle and diet.
“There is a clear consumer demand for healthy options to which the industry is increasingly responding,” he said.