One in five Irish children aged 4-12 is overweight or obese ¹ and the same figure is true for 13-17 year olds ².

Twenty percent of energy in Irish children's diets comes from foods, such as sweets, snacks and biscuits that have little or no nutritional value ¹.

On average, Irish teenagers drink 2 glasses of mainly sugar containing drinks a day and younger children one glass ².

Irish children and young people have low intakes of essential nutrients: calcium, iron, vitamins A, C, D and folate ¹.

Most of the food and drink marketed to young people is high in fat, sugar and salt - the so called 'junk foods' - sugary fizzy drinks, confectionary, sugary cereals, salty snacks and fast food ³.

Marketing to children uses a variety of creative and interlinked approaches from popular children's film and book cartoon characters on packaging, giveaways, incentives, internet games (which have been described as advergames), sponsorship, posters and billboards ³.  

Most of the advertising is on television but increasingly schools, the internet and texting are being used ³.

At present adverts to children are not just during children's TV viewing times but also during family viewing times ⁴.

In Irish secondary schools, sales of unhealthy foods is the most prevalent form of marketing: 74% sell confectionary; 57% salty snacks and crisps and 52% fizzy drinks ⁵.

Parents ⁶ and schools ⁵ want government to take action to restrict marketing and advertising to children and young people.

Four in five parents want a ban of TV ads up to 9pm to protect children ⁶.

For every $1 spent on health messages, the food industry spends $500 ⁷.

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