'Simply doesn't make sense': Nation's peak marketing body clashes with South Australia government over policy to ban junk food ads amid obesity crisis

Sky News AU

15-05-2025

South Australia is set to make an extraordinary move to ban all junk food advertisements from public transportation in a bid to scale back the state's rising obesity figures.
The mandatory state policy is expected to kick in from July 1 and will prohibit an array of advertisements per the COAG Health Council's National interim guide to reduce children's exposure to unhealthy food and drink promotion.
Businesses will soon be restricted from advertising images of lollies, dried fruits with added sugar, chocolocate, doughnuts, savoury or flavoured crisps, burgers, pizza, nachos, processed meats, kebabs and more.
The government is also expected to ban promotions of meat pies and sausage rolls.
"Australians are regularly exposed to unhealthy food and drink marketing which can influence nutrition knowledge, food preferences and consumption patterns, especially for children," the South Australia government wrote in a previous statement.
"Unhealthy diets continue to be a leading public health risk."
However, the nation's peak advertising body has clashed with the state on the drastic policy and has criticised the extensive list of restrictions.
The CEO of Australian Association of National Advertisers, Josh Faulks said: "As it stands, this policy bans all processed meats, which means a simple ham salad sandwich can't be advertised.'
"This simply doesn't make sense and the government should be making evidence-based decisions, not blanket bans that don't align with nutritional science.'
The AANA further highlighted the economic impact the policy could have on businesses and claimed the sweeping changes would make it hard to advertise in South Australia.
'The Tasting Australia event can no longer show images of charcuterie boards or pastries in their advertising," said Faulks.
'Under this policy, businesses that have nothing to do with the food or beverage industry will find advertising in South Australia harder.
"We fully support measures that encourage healthy eating, but this policy fails to distinguish between everyday foods and discretionary items, creating confusion and unfairly restricting brands that are doing the right thing from communicating with consumers."
In place of the "blanket ban" the AANA is urging the state government to instead adopt the Food Standards Australia New Zealand nutrient profiling scoring criteria to determine which foods should be restricted.
According to latest government figures about 63 per cent of adults and 35 per cent of children across South Australia are overweight or obese.
The state policy has garnered the support of a number of organisations including Preventative Health SA and the Cancer Council.
Health Minister Chris Picton took aim at AANA and accused the peak body of ''scaremongering'' the public.
''These lobbyists want to force the State Government to keep having junk food ads on our own buses amidst an obesity crisis,'' Mr Picton said.
'Advertising of unhealthy food and drinks has long been recognised as having a harmful impact on the diets of children.
''The policy applies to government-owned Adelaide Metro buses, trains and trams. It is not up to advertising industry lobbyists to tell us what can be displayed on our public transport assets.''