Junk food sponsorship of sports should be banned to protect children’s health experts say, warning the adverts have become more “pervasive” and “prominent” than ever.
Cadbury, Pepsi, KP Snacks, Walkers, Kellogg’s, Red Bull, and Monster are just some of the brands that hold partnerships with sporting stars, top flight teams, or official governing bodies.
They include deals with top men’s and women’s football stars Cole Palmer, Bukayo Saka, Leah Williamson, and Lauren James, England Cricket captain Ben Stokes, cyclist Tom Pidcock, and Formula 1 driver Lando Norris.
According to research published by the Journal BMJ, junk food firms have more than 90 current sponsorship deals within top UK sports.
The research argues these sponsorships help give junk food companies a “health halo effect” by making their products seem more acceptable and even less harmful.
Researchers also found the advertising by top sports personalities improves children’s opinions of unhealthy foods that are high in salt and sugar like fizzy drinks and crisps.
“These players are in absolute peak physical condition, and they are unfortunately promoting products that just do not generally feature in athletes’ diets,” said Robin Ireland at Glasgow University’s school of health and wellbeing.
“We should not be allowing food brands to be using sport to promote consumption of their unhealthy products to young people. It simply should be banned,” he added.
The government is set to bring in legislation banning adverts for products that are high in fat, salt and sugar before the 9pm TV watershed in January 2026.
Childhood obesity is rising fastest of all and about a fifth of children aged 10 to 11 are living with obesity, according to the NHS.
Professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, Dr Naveed Sattar, would welcome a ban but believes it will have a minor impact.
“The issue is much wider than sponsorship as there are simply too many cheap calories available everywhere. Any one action alone – such as cutting advertising by food companies in sport – will have trivial effects on the food environment or eating habits,” he told the Independent.
Nutritionist Rob Hobson stressed that sports should be about “promoting health”.
“When you’ve got big-name athletes and teams backed by ultra-processed food brands, it can send a confusing message to kids and families,” he told the Independent.
Labour MP and GP Simon Opher argued BMJ’s findings demonstrate “genuine sports washing” and said “It mirrors the tobacco industry activity inthe 1970s, when it deliberately targeted sport.” He tabled a parliamentary question to ask the health secretary “whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to ban sponsorship of sports events by unhealthy food brands.”
The government responded that it had “no current plans to ban the sponsorship of sports events by food brands associated with less healthy food or drink products or ban the advertising of less healthy food or drink products at sports events.”
It added, “We continue to review the evidence of the impacts on children of less healthy food or drink product advertising and will consider where further action is needed.”
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