Cartoons 'used to promote unhealthy foods to kids'

Popular cartoon characters are being used to promote fatty, sugary, and salty foods to youngsters, a report out today warns.

Shrek, Bratz, The Simpsons and the Pink Panther are among the familiar faces appearing on unhealthy products, UK-based consumer group Which? found.

The use of cartoon characters to promote foods high in fat, salt or sugar undermines parents’ efforts to help children eat healthily, the group said.

Which? researchers bought products featuring popular children’s cartoon characters from UK supermarkets between March and June this year.

They also looked at other food promotions which used cartoons.

All the food products were then analysed to find their levels of salt, saturated fat and sugar.

The Which? 'Cartoon Heroes and Villains' report lists an array of unhealthy products with cartoon characters on the packaging.

Bratz characters appeared on packs of Bon Bon Buddies’ Fabulous Biscuits high in fat, saturates and sugar.

Characters from the film Flushed Away appeared on packs of Burton’s Jammie Dodgers and on Kellogg’s Coco Pops Staws, which are both high in saturates and sugar.

A Happy Feet penguin was used on the box of high-sugar Weetabix chocolate flavour Weetos, and Shrek appeared on packs of sugary Kellogg’s Frosties.

The Simpsons appeared on honey nut popcorn from Butterkist which is high in sugar.

Spiderman was used on packs of high-sugar Nesquik chocolate flavour cereal.

Winnie the Pooh and Tigger appeared on a selection of products including Marks & Spencer’s high-sugar soft fruit gums and Nestle’s little chocolate pots, high in both saturates and sugar.

The Pink Panther was used on Jammy Wheels which are high in saturates and sugar and Shrek featured on packs of Kellogg’s Frosties which are high in sugar.

Many products featuring cartoon characters have no nutritional information on packs to help parents assess how healthy they are, Which? Said.

The consumer group also criticised fast food chains for running giveaway promotions using popular cartoon characters.

McDonald’s gave away Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and SpongeBob SquarePants toys with its Happy Meals.

And Burger King’s promotions included Pet Alien toys and Spiderman-themed giveaways.

Which? Chief policy advisor Sue Davies said: “There are precious few examples of cartoons being used to promote healthy products. Our research shows that the majority are being used to encourage children to eat fatty, sugary and salty foods.”

The consumer group praised Disney for recently announcing a ban on their characters being used to promote unhealthy products.

Which? is calling for other firms to follow suit. It also wants regulation to be brought in to stop “irresponsible” marketing of unhealthy food to children via TV adverts, packaging, free gifts and websites.

But the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) which represents manufacturers said the UK already had some of the strictest regulations in the world for the promotion of food and drink to children.

FDF director of communications Julian Hunt said: “There are regulations in place that ban the use of licensed characters on TV ads for high fat, sugar and salt products aimed at primary school children or younger.

“Industry has also introduced voluntary restrictions along the same lines for non-broadcast advertising.

“We are disappointed with the timing of this report because we are working with stakeholders, including Which? via the Department of Health’s Advertising and Promotion Forum to look at areas such as packaging.”