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London Plans To Ban Junk Food Advertising On Public Transport (bloomberg.com)
Junk food advertising could be banned from the entire Transport for London network under proposals announced by Mayor Sadiq Khan, as he tries to tackle rising levels of childhood obesity in the city. From a report: "I want to reduce the influence and pressure that can be put on children and families to make unhealthy choices," Khan said in a statement announcing the proposals to ban advertisements for unhealthy food and drink on London's trains, buses and bus shelters. The mayor also proposed a ban on new hot food takeaway stores opening within 400 meters of schools.
London has one of the highest childhood obesity rates in Europe -- nearly 40 percent of 10-11 year-olds in the capital are overweight or obese, according to the statement. Children from poorer areas are disproportionately affected by the "obesity epidemic," Khan said, adding that young people from Barking and Dagenham in East London are almost twice as likely to be overweight as children from the upmarket Richmond neighborhood.
London has one of the highest childhood obesity rates in Europe -- nearly 40 percent of 10-11 year-olds in the capital are overweight or obese, according to the statement. Children from poorer areas are disproportionately affected by the "obesity epidemic," Khan said, adding that young people from Barking and Dagenham in East London are almost twice as likely to be overweight as children from the upmarket Richmond neighborhood.
Not tech. Not even tech related.
Maybe Sadiq could start with banning ads for political junk ideology, like his own, which leads to far more deaths like encouraging boys to NOT be athletic or active leading to... obesity.
All the knife, and acid attacks going on in your city.
McDonalds -> baaaaaaaad, baaaaaaaaaan'd
Original British Fish&Chips -> Keep Calm and continue stuffin' your face
Terrorism? "Oh. We'll just have to GET USED TO IT!" You know, like they do in 3rd world hell-holes where terror attacks are a daily thing.
Rape gangs? *TUMBLEWEEDS*
Police are ineffectual fops because criminals are ARMED and they AREN'T? And have to wait, sometimes for HOURS, for armed backup? *CRICKETS*
Violent crime going through the roof? "NOBODY NEEDS A KNIFE!" And then they arrest a guy with a potato peeler.
Fast Food? "OMGWTFBBQ! The evil has revealed itself! GET THEE BEHIND ME SATAN!"
Just fucking pathetic.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
I get the whole 'healthy lifestyle' campaigns to battle obesity, but this essentially groups junk food with cigarettes which was similarly banned in the US from public 'mass media' advertisement (tele/billboard).
At that point you're classifying categories of comfort food as 'junk'. How long is it until chocolate is also junk food? Junk food is only dangerous by over indulgence. Smoking however is deliberate damage to the lungs, even if 'moderated' just like alcohol is to the brain. Oddly enough alcohol has no such advertising ban, as they 'self moderate' to only legal drinking age markets supposedly.
I don't read AC
what the fuck is going on with their teeth?
If you're going to try to encourage people to make healthier choices, perhaps start with the vending machines loaded with crisp packets and candy?
And make sure only over 18s can buy the fattiest of foods. They also need treatment for people already addicted to food like over 30 stone (420lbs) addicted by putting them in intensive weight hospitals.
This is great; everyone will be nice and healthy when some urchin throws acid in their face.
Oh, and there is fake news going around about 7 people killed in an Australian mass shooting. Seems that some media sources are unaware of how obvious these fake stories are given that mass shootings were solved by Australian gun control, as we're told by experts every time there is a mass shooting in the US.
Inform the public instead; let them make the choice.
Start with sugar. Then go from there.
The robots that will soon "man" these fast food centers will be programmed not to put sugar in anything.
Certainly not in tea! There will only be packets of brown sugar for coffee, as an option for coffee drinkers.
An option best left to an informed, and soon healthier, public.
Not that I expect London to read /. --- they already have The Reg, at theregister.co.uk.
Let me put my flame resistant coat on
Woman laughing alone with salad.
Google it.
Boulder (CO) decide to heavily tax sugary beverages (aka, soda), but do nothing about the problems related to homelessness.
A year or so ago he also banned adverts on public transport with attractive people in them as they were triggering fat people.
He obviously has some kind of ideal London avatar that heâ(TM)s pushing towards. Londoners canâ(TM)t be too pretty, canâ(TM)t be too fat. I havenâ(TM)t heard anything from him other than he likes to ban things?
Has he actually created anything meaningful yet?
what about Monster Munch? Can we still advertise that?
The foods being eaten for meals are the problem, not the snacks. it's still legal to advertise those harmful "foods", so the government are being idiots. Nanny states are always run by the low watt bulbs
Rock the casbah, rock the casbah.
Remember kids, Americans are fat pieces of shit, because 1 in 3 are fatties, as opposed to the so much thinner 1 in 4 Britons or Germans.
I'd be curious how they are going to come up with a legal definition for what is and is not junk food. Does it have to be like Cheetos and Mountain Dew, or will McDonald's no longer be able to advertise either? And if fast food is no longer allowed, do we have to set the standard of a casual dining restaurant? You can get healthy food quickly. too depending on the business.
If a person cycles to work about 40 minutes on a safe green bicycle path, and back home 40 minutes. She/he can eat about anything.
Incredible how government handles bad behavior. Got to stop people from over eating by taking away your freedoms, but on the other hand let's sell weed so people can get high and governments can tax the shit out of it and could care less about the side effects. It's that California effect of government trying their hardest to control you.
You people have to stop getting your news from Fox and Breitbart. The homicide rate in London is not even 1/30th of the US' worst cities, and is nearly half that of New York (all per capita).
Let's do an experiment.
Starting next week, for the next 30 days let's keep track of all the high-profile murders and attacks in both London and NYC.
For the sake of consistency and ease of specification, let's say May 15 through June 15.
Anyone care to predict which city has more horrific attacks and murders?
Thank god for curry.
This is great, coming from the country that recently convicted someone for carrying a potato peeler in public.
Stay tuned for the next announce of new higher fares to offset all the lost advertising revenue.
What is junk food really? when is something junk food?
Remember, we all subsidize the weak-willed tube riders who drink fancy alcohol and munch on crisps instead of live an upright life.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I don't bloody think Sharia allows it!
That's the mayor of London for you.
What about the increasing crime rate? How about banning that?
Junk food is a junk term. Furthermore, there is zero evidence the food traditionally thought of ad junk food is bad for you. Extreme quantities of ANY food is bad. There obviously can be apecific ingredients that make certain foods worse than others, how about simply remindig people to reduce their intakes of those specific ingredients?
doesnt need advertising really, its now ubiquitous amongst scum
really, if you're willing to share a touch screen with the thousands of unwashed or booger picking children to eat something with your hands after no message will get through to you
What's the point?
Ramadan (May 15 -> June 14).
The United Kaliphate, one step at a time.
Chocolate (the usual sweet type with lots of sugar) IS junk food, in the "junk" sense that it doesn't do your body any good, nor provide needed sustenance, if eaten regularly.
In the same sense that all kinds of sweets are also junk food, so is wine and coffee.
The key difference for this ban is ads for wine and coffee aren't targeting children.
Real world is not an MMO. The lack of rigorous definition of something never stopped lawmakers putting things into law before, nor had it stopped judges ruling people guilty of it.
At least London is taking a firm stance against junk food and mean tweets.
London's mayor is useless.
How about you ban all ads on public transport? What a shitty experience it is to have crass commercial hucksterism thrust in your face at every turn, every day.
But noooo, no, we can't lose that sweet sweet sponsor money.... As bad for society as sweet sweet junk food is for metabolism.