World Consumer Rights Day: Thank you for eating

Children are also consumers and a well-planned advertising campaign can manipulate their minds as well, especially when it comes to food.

When a five-year-old watches his favourite cartoon character eating or drinking a particular brand, his orientation towards that brand changes; he wants to have whatever his favourite character is having. It does not matter what the health implications of the thing he wants it, he’ll love it anyway.

The sale of junk food and drinks and their marketing, with children as the targeted audience, are on the top agenda as the World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) is being observed today. All the experts agree on one point; that children, as consumers, are more susceptible to be manipulated by the ‘deceiving marketing tactics’ used by various food and drink producers.

All the organisations working for the protection of consumer rights agree that the government has failed to provide safety and a proper guidance to consumers, especially children. Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan (CRCP) Executive Director Abrar Hafiz urged the government to launch a public awareness programme on the harmful effects of junk food. “Children and the youth are becoming more vulnerable to junk food and the diseases and disorders related to junk food such as obesity and heart problems,” he claims.

Hafiz stated that unhealthy food marketed by animation in the electronic media is making children more addicted to food that hardly has any nutritional value. Presenting data in support of his argument, Hafiz said that around 22 million children around the world are overweight before they even start to go to school and this is due to the excessive intake of junk food.

“The junk market, through different channels, often gets popular amongst children. Children start relying on junk food to fulfill their dietary requirements, which results in them having lower concentration spans in the short run and high cholesterol and heart diseases in the long run,” the CRPC states. The organisation blames junk food for the menace of high blood pressure in the youth as well. “Such types of food have an excessive quantity of sodium, which leads to hyper tension,” it adds.

A reason that consumer rights organisations are focusing on children as consumers may be that the World Health Organisation (WHO) is preparing recommendations on the marketing of food and drink items for children. “WCRD, this year, takes place at a critical time in the international debate, as WHO is working on its recommendations on the marketing of food and non-alcoholic beverages to children,” claims Consumers International, an organisation for the promotion of consumer rights across the globe, on its official website.

Junk food generation is the Consumers International’s campaign to stop the marketing of unhealthy food to children. Teachers and NGOs are getting more worried over the increased consumption of betel nut (chaalia) and cigarettes by school going children. Society for the Protection of Rights of Children (SPARC) Regional Promotion Manager Salam Darejo claims that his organisation has received hundreds of complaints from teachers, stating that students are getting addict to unhealthy items like chalia, betel leaf (paan) and cigarettes. “We are planning to start an awareness campaign to guide the children,” says Darejo.

He demands that the government implement certain consumer laws. “The next generation is going to be destroyed if children are not guided properly and the sale of unhealthy substances like these is not banned,” the SPARC regional manager opines.
By Fawad Ali Shah
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