Should weight loss adverts be banned until after the watershed?

TV advertising can often be a bit hit and miss.

It’s like those car adverts with no sound. At first I thought it was a pretty clever idea. It definitely makes you stop and look up at the TV as you wonder why there’s no sound. I soon realised it’s most likely a clever advertising ploy in an attempt to grab your attention.

Or how about all of those toy adverts on kids channels? Up until recently I never knew these existed!

Yes, the joy of having twins who love to watch Cbeebies and nothing else, has meant we’ve managed to evade toy adverts for almost six years!

However, when one our girls decided to turn the TV over I was shocked at how many adverts there were on a certain kids TV channel.

Now that our girls are almost six years old, their horizons are starting to broaden. A firm favourite for them to watch is ITV’s Tipping Point and The Chase.

I’m all for them both watching these game shows. They’re entertaining, fun and they may even learn something from them. What I don’t like however, are the types of TV advertising that get shown in between these shows.

For example, last week a weight loss advert popped up. I’m a huge advocate of healthy weight loss through diet and exercise, but when these adverts show women who are clearly already a size 8 or 10, this angers me.

These women don’t need to lose weight. Maybe they want to tone up and get stronger which is great, but weight loss? Nope.

Personally, I think these adverts are aimed at young, impressionable women which is why they use women around the same age as their target audience. However, to be truly effective, surely these kinds of adverts should have ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures?

Showing a woman, or man for that matter, who’s clearly unhealthy and overweight, followed by a transformation picture of him as a healthy adult would be much more effective in getting the message across. Of course, that probably wouldn’t appeal to the right audience which is why young, slender women are often chosen instead.

This begs the question though. Should weight loss adverts be banned on TV before the watershed?

I wonder what kind of impact these adverts have on young children such as my own.

To be honest I actually wonder if the watershed even exists anymore. Some soaps such as Emmerdale, which recently showed an acid attack on TV at 7pm, makes me think that there is no watershed anymore.

Are we just used to seeing such things on TV nowadays? Have we become numb to this?

I know that TV adverts have to go through a series of screenings and be approved before being aired on TV, but I think it’s time we started to look at the ways certain things are advertised.

Rather than skinny people promoting weight loss, why not show people of all ages and sizes exercising with a message encouraging others to do so too, along with the physical and mental health benefits that exercise can bring?

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts.