Children under 16 spend £13 million on sweets and snacks each week in the UK*

How junk food companies target your kids

Getting children's personal information

Children are being asked to ‘text’ in their answers to competitions more and more. And some junk food websites encourage children to fill in their details online. These are both marketing techniques that companies can use to get your children’s personal details. Once they have them, they can contact your child with their next junk food promotion.

While these methods are only meant for children who have asked for their parent’s permission, in reality, the child usually only has to click on a box to say that that permission has been given.

McDonald’s have just launched a £2.7m advertising campaign promoting their Chicken Legend Sandwich on O2 and Vodafone networks. Christian Padmore, Mobile Manager for OMD – the advertising company that carried out the campaign for McDonalds said “mobile is the perfect fit for the young, male target audience we wanted to reach.”

Share on Facebook   Forward to a friend

Sign our petitionTake action

Only I in 4 parents are aware that food and drink companies use text or email competitions to attract children.Did you know?

*National Consumer Council