Call for TV ‘watershed’ on sugary drink ads

Manufacturers of sugary drinks should be banned from marketing their products to children, according to a new report.

A study by the Children’s Food Campaign looked at the advertising and marketing of soft drinks in the UK in June and July this year.

As a result, it wants tougher rules to stop makers marketing drinks towards children and a “watershed” for TV advertising of sweet drinks.

Britons drank 14.6 billion litres of soft drinks last year, which works out at two 330ml cans per person per day.

The report criticised manufacturers for prominently using fruit on packaging and in advertising, when the products themselves contain little fruit.

Still Vimto, which contains 5 per cent fruit juice, and Capri Sun, which has 12 per cent, both came under fire for this.

The report said: “It is disingenuous for any manufacturer to argue that a marketing campaign that misrepresents the product and misleads consumers is excusable because its fruit content is listed on an ingredients panel.

“We believe this is equivalent to a contract’s ‘small print’ and is not an acceptable get-out clause.”

Another drink that irked the authors was Fruit Shoot Hydro. Maker Britvic had included a statement on its Ready for Ten website from “Fruit Shoot nutritionist” Julie Dean, who said: “Water can sometimes satisfy [children’s] thirst before they are actually properly hydrated, whereas squash and juice are absorbed more slowly so they will drink more.”

The authors said this was one of the “most misleading claims” they had found, and went on: “Such claims contradict public health advice, and encourage parents to give squash and juice products to their children instead of water.

“Due to Britvic’s failure to provide us with robust evidence to support this claim, we have complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about this.”