Unhealthy foods are becoming a silent epidemic, with one in seven adults and one in eight children globally now effectively addicted to ultra-processed foods, according to your report (Addiction to ultra-processed food affects 14% of adults globally, experts say, 10 October). It’s time to address this issue at its source: advertising. Consumption of junk food begins not with what goes in our mouths but with the messaging into our brains via advertising.
UK junk food advertising is an industry worth tens of millions of pounds working to glamorise unhealthy diets. My own work looks at outdoor advertising, such as on billboards and bus stops. In 2022, among the biggest spenders on outdoor advertising were the likes of Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, KFC, Subway and Müller. They spent £195m filling public spaces with monuments to fat, salt and sugar.
