Children's popular programs contained 18
times more junk food advertisements
than adult television, the study found.

University of Sydney researchers have found that advertisements for junk food that use competitions and give-aways are 18 times more common during the 20 most popular children's programs compared to popular adult programs.

The study, the first to look at the use of persuasive television food marketing techniques to children in Australia, also found promotional characters such as cartoon characters and celebrities were used twice as often in food advertisements during popular children's programs.

Conducted by University of Sydney researchers at the NSW Centre for Overweight and Obesity, the study has been published online in the international journal Health Promotion International.

"Persuasive marketing techniques were mostly used to advertise unhealthy foods, with over three unhealthy food advertisements every hour using premium offers during the most popular programs with children," said Lesley King, one of the researchers.

She said: "Advertisements for chocolate, confectionery, fast food restaurant meals and high sugar/low fibre breakfast cereals contributed to the greatest proportion of all premium offers."

Ms King said that although persuasive marketing techniques are clearly being used to catch children's attention, new draft Children's Television Standards released by the Australian Communications and Media Authority would fail to effectively reduce children's exposure to these marketing tactics.

"The draft standards only restrict the use of cartoon characters and celebrities during C or P classified programs, yet these are not the programs that are watched by the largest numbers of children," she said.

"Regulations to restrict these persuasive marketing techniques must apply at broadcasting periods when children are actually watching television; up until 9 or 10pm. Importantly, most of the programs on commercial channels that are popular with children will not be covered under the draft standards."