Whose choices are they? How big brands shape our health

So this wasn’t what I was going to write about this week but it is hard to ignore it.  

Researchers found that ‘an average of 576 visible ads for junk food and drink shown during each individual match’ and overall that amounted to 65,722 adverts – and those adverts were visible for just over 28 hours or 16% of the total time matches were being played. 

That is a veritable onslaught of messaging and you have to wonder how public health messages about living healthier or making the right choices compete – even before factoring in the impact of cost of living and time poor families. Now FIFA says it is ok because they also have social impact campaigns, including Be Active, that ‘delivered messages of unity, inclusion, health and friendship to audiences on an unprecedented scale throughout the World Cup.’ Hands up anyone that can say they have heard of the Be Active campaign or who can describe an image associated with it – anyone? 

And it doesn’t stop there. Whilst junk food was the most prevalent ‘potentially harmful’ advertising there was also a fair bit of advertising linked to alcohol, prediction market brands, gambling and cryptocurrency. And it has been suggested that much of the advertising is aimed at younger people and market creation. So whilst the government can introduce changes to school dinners it won’t combat the nagging desire in your head to grab a packet of crisps, burger or fizzy drink for the bus ride home. 

This is one of the clearest examples of the Commercial Determinants of Health and why it is imperative that more is done to challenge the power of commercial organisations pursuit of private financial gain when the sale of unhealthy commodities is clearly counter to the wellbeing of people, communities and government budgets. There is evidence that globalisation is driving some of this behaviour – so an interest in local economies, wellbeing economies and the kind of thinking that sits behind doughnut economics is a good thing – however – without marketing budgets that match the global brands it is going to be an uphill struggle to win the hearts and minds (and stomachs) of us all.  

The work locally of the Greater Lincolnshire Food Partnership to try to bring farmers and communities closer together is a good example of what can be done to think differently about supply chains and getting affordable and healthy food onto people’s tables.  

If you are new to the concept of Commercial Determinants of Health this fact sheet from the World Health Organisation is a good starting point. It strikes me that Local Government Reorganisation and Devolution both provide good opportunities to push for different ways of thinking about things and for creating plans that seek to change the way things are done and address some of the challenges and harms that, often unintentionally, are created by current systems. As the BBC article points out it is the normalisation of consumption of these food  products that is the problem – I know people find it odd that I didn’t go into a McDonalds until I was in my thirties (that’s not normal I hear you say!) so perhaps the challenge for us all is how we normalise behaviours and choices that are less harmful to ourselves and to our planet. 

On a completely different note it was great to see a number of the @Its All About People Team at Lincoln Folk Festival – a wee bit of toe tapping is good exercise (as is the walk up the hill to the Victoria) and always good to see our shared team member Caty playing with The Limewoods. This was what I was going to write about this week – the connections made in community spaces of all kinds and the importance of third spaces (from pubs to village halls and to public parks) in creating healthy communities and how to me these are the things that make neighbourhood health an exciting proposition if only we can keep ourselves from being swamped by conversations driven by accountability, governance and key performance indicators. Maybe next week…