Children's health and food

Why we’re giving kids a commercial break

We're joining forces with our partners Bite Back and have placed 365 billboards across Lambeth and Southwark with one clear message: “We’ve bought this ad space so the junk food giants couldn’t – we’re giving kids a commercial break.”

Impact on Urban Health

Changing the story

In our children’s health and food programme we have been working to shift the narrative around food related ill health; away from a narrow focus on individual responsibility to one that shines a light on how the world around us shapes our health.

Evidence shows that how we communicate about children’s health matters because by opening up thinking about how our food is produced, marketed and sold, we can build understanding and support for the solutions and policies needed to help improve children’s health in the UK.

We have been working with partners and the sector to embed this narrative; the next phase of our work is focused on increasing the amount of people we are reaching.

Commercial break campaign

This April, we are thrilled to be joining forces with our partners Bite Back to launch the #CommercialBreak campaign, designed to shine a light on how children’s health is impacted by the things that surround them – in this case, the £400m marketing tactics that target them with unhealthy food every day.

With the young activists of Bite Back we have placed 365 billboards in high-traffic areas across Lambeth and Southwark, including London Bridge Station, with one clear message:

“We’ve bought this ad space so the junk food giants couldn’t – we’re giving kids a commercial break.”

By doing so, this campaign has effectively prevented an estimated 14.8 million people in our Boroughs from being exposed to these adverts by taking unhealthy food out of the spotlight. The campaign highlights how nation-wide legislation to restrict street advertising for High Fat Salt Sugar (HFSS) products is required to protect children and young people’s health.

In the background is a billboard at London Bridge with the text:

A London bus with the Bite Back advert on the side, with text:

Activating helpful mindsets

But this is more than a campaign devised to highlight how we need to go further with restricting HFSS advertising, it is also designed shift the narrative around children’s health and food by activating more helpful mindsets.

It highlights how the world around us impacts our health, how our neighbourhoods are often flooded with junk food, and how marketing tactics put unhealthy food centre stage in our children’s lives. Telling a story that helps to build support for the policies and solutions need to improve children’s health.

The campaign brings to life the evidence backed recommendations from Frame Works UK on what works best when communicating about this issue, putting them into action by:

Leading with children’s health and food related ill health – we know these terms are helpful in activating mindsets away from individual blame and towards systemic change
Showing health isn’t experienced equally –research shows the prevalence of junk food ads is six times greater in the most deprived areas compared to the least
Opening our eyes to how our neighbourhoods shape health – research with the University of Liverpool shows how one in four outdoor adverts on our streets promote unhealthy food and drinks
Highlighting how advertising puts unhealthy food centre stage Bite Back’s analysis shows that in 2024, food and drink companies spent over £400 million on street advertising
Showing solutions are within reach – the campaign calls for the government to follow the lead of local authorities with healthier food advertising policies
Centring the voices of people affected by the issue – in this case the powerful Bite Back activists who speak to their everyday experiences holding companies and decision makers to account.

Creating more stories and voices

As an organisation working to create the conditions for change we recognise we can’t only rely on more evidence, statistics and facts about how big the issues impacting our health are – we also need more campaigns like this, more media stories and more voices telling compelling stories showing what we’re up against when it comes to our health, and what’s possible in terms of solutions.

This campaign is the first public-facing narrative change campaign we are funding at Impact on Urban Health and we will be sharing our learnings with the sector and those interested in work to reframe the dominant narratives that affect our health.

We will also be looking for opportunities to work with partners and beyond, who can help activate this narrative to wider audiences, if you’d like to get involved, please get in touch at childrensfood@urbanhealth.org.uk.

Together we can change the story for children, for good.