Spain has announced plans to ban influencers, TV presenters and sports stars from advertising unhealthy food and drink to children.
Under the proposals, which have just been put out for public consultation, anyone in a position to influence children would be forbidden to market food or drink that is high in sugar, sodium, salt or fat.
“The ban would prohibit appearances in commercial communications by parents, educators, teachers, children’s TV professionals, sportspeople, artists, influencers, and people or characters – be they real or fictional – who may, by dint of their careers, be likely to represent a model or example for these minors,” Spain’s consumer affairs ministry said in its draft decree.
The ministry described an influencer as “a person with a high level of influence over children and young people because of their large number of followers on social or digital media, and who interacts through messages on networks, blogs, posts, videos or similar media”.
It said high-profile figures who were popular among children would also be sought to participate in educational and public health campaigns to promote “physical activity and health, sustainable and responsible eating habits”.
The move comes five months after Spain’s consumer affairs minister, Alberto Garzón, said he would ban advertisements for unhealthy foods that are aimed at children on TV, online, on social media and in apps, in cinemas, newspapers and on the radio. The ban would apply to items such as chocolate, cakes, biscuits, energy bars, juices, energy drinks and ice creams.
Garzón, an economist who is the coordinator for the United Left alliance in the coalition government, said the measures were needed to tackle “the serious public health problem of childhood obesity”.
A 2019 study found that 40.6% of Spanish children aged six to nine were over their recommended weight, of whom 17.3% were classed as obese.
The plans were swiftly seized on by opponents of Spain’s Socialist-led coalition government. Ismael Sirio, then social media chief for the conservative People’s party, tweeted a picture of himself stuffing his face with chocolate and surrounded by confectionery, while the party’s president of the Madrid region accused the government of double standards, tweeting: “Drugs, yes. Sweets, no.”
Garzón has also been criticised by rightwing politicians, Spain’s meat industry – and some of his cabinet colleagues – for calling on Spaniards to reduce their meat consumption for the sake of the planet and the good of their health and for contrasting the quality of extensively farmed meat with that produced on intensive megafarms.
