Cut Childhood Obesity - Ban Fast-Food Ads

(November 20, 2008) - It's a radical idea, and would face major free speech hurdles, but one study says the way to cut down on childhood obesity (Read about "Obesity") would be to ban TV ads for fast food. A ban on fast food advertisements in the United States could reduce the number of overweight children by as much as 18 percent, according to a new study being published in the Journal of Law and Economics. The study also reports that eliminating the tax deductibility associated with television advertising would result in a reduction of childhood obesity, though in smaller numbers.

Researchers from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) with funding from the National Institutes of Health conducted the study, which measures the number of hours of fast food television advertising messages viewed by children on a weekly basis.

The authors found that a ban on fast food television advertisements during children's programming would reduce the number of overweight children ages 3-11 by 18 percent, while also lowering the number of overweight adolescents ages 12-18 by 14 percent. The effect is more pronounced for males than females.

Though a ban would be effective, the authors also question whether such a high degree of government involvement - and the costs of implementing such policies - is a practical option. Should the U.S. pursue that path, they would follow Sweden, Norway and Finland as the only countries to have banned commercial sponsorship of children's programs.

The study also found that the elimination of tax deductibility tied to advertising would similarly produce declines in childhood obesity, albeit at a smaller rate of 5-7 percent. Advertising is considered a business expense and, as such, it can be used to reduce a company's taxable income. The authors deduce that, since the corporate income tax rate is 35 percent, the elimination of the tax deductibility of food advertising costs would be equivalent to increasing the price of advertising by 54 percent.

Such an action would consequently result in the reduction of fast food advertising messages by 40 percent for children, and 33 percent for adolescents.