Teal independent to go after McDonalds, KFC and Hungry Jacks in new bill: Dr Sophie Scamps

Burgers, fizzy drinks, and chocolate bars that have graced prime-time screens for years could be banned under an advertising plan from a newly elected politician. 

Dr Sophie Scamps has given away her GP job on Sydney’s Northern Beaches for an office in Parliament House after riding the wave of Teal support at the March federal election. 

The Independent member for Mackellar has her sights set of tackling Australia’s obesity epidemic and is working on a private members’ bill to outlaw prime-time junk food advertising and sponsorship of sports teams. 

‘Advertising that targets children, during the times when children are watching TV, at their sporting events, all those things need to be looked at. They can be changed,’ Dr Scamps told the Sydney Morning Herald. 

One of the biggest outlets for fast food advertising dollars is sport – both at a school and professional level. 

KFC has been synonymous with Australian cricket for decades, while Hungry Jack’s recently renewed it’s naming rights on the NBL.

Similarly, McDonald’s has just renewed it’s partnership with the AFL for another 10 years and bankrolls hundreds of grassroots sporting clubs, as well as Little Athletics in NSW. 

With the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimating about a quarter of Aussie kids are overweight and 10 per cent obese, critics are suggesting all that junk food advertising could be getting in the way of sending the healthy message of sport to children. 

‘We have a choice. We either look at prevention, or we start to expand our hospital systems radically now to deal with that chronic health disease burden,’ Dr Scamps said.

Dr Sophie Scamps (pictured) wants to introduce a bill to limit junk food advertising on TV and in sport 

Under the advertising industry self-regulated codes images of fast food (pictured) can be shown during blocks of programming aimed specifically at kids but prime time is ok

She compared it to the tobacco advertising ban that swept through sport in the 80s. 

The federal government does have the powers to impose such a blanket ban on advertising but prefers to let the industry police itself through it’s official Ad Standards set of codes. 

This code states sporting sponsorship is fine – so long as just the company logo appears and pictures of the food or drink in question are  never shown.

‘Junk’ food can also not be advertised during children’s programming blocks – but is fine in prime-time where kids may be watching with adults and is even more of a gray area online. 

The previous government’s National Obesity Strategy – a plan to tackle the issue that seems to have been shelved ahead of the federal election – said children were exposed to on average more than 820 junk food advertisements every year. 

Dr Scamps said a reduction in ads children see would have a positive effect on their health and directly translate to a reduction of ‘pester power’. 

McDonalds has been a fixture of school and community sport for decades but Dr Scamps said ‘all those things need to be looked at’