Are we selling children & adolescents a lifetime of ill-health? Join CAP-2030 for the next debate on 7th July

Following our global launch on the threat of climate change to children’s health and well-being, we’ll be taking a deeper look at the mass commercial marketing of harmful products to children & adolescents at our next event: Are we selling children & adolescents a lifetime of ill-health?

The impact of commercial marketing on children and adolescent’s health and well-being:

Commercial exploitation of children & adolescents through marketing of products and services such as alcohol, tobacco, sugar-sweetened beverages, ultra-processed foods, breastmilk substitutes, and gambling apps is an under-appreciated threat to their health and well-being. Companies target children & adolescents because they influence parents’ household spending and carry their brand loyalty over a lifetime. But with loyalty over a lifetime, while companies profit hugely, children, families and societies pay the price.

Pervasive promotion of unhealthy food and beverages is implicated in the rapid rise in childhood obesity, with an 11-fold increase in obese children and adolescents from 1975 to 2016. This can have an impact over the entire lifespan of a child and promote a lifetime of ill-health.

But commercial marketing of products and services that are harmful to children is not merely a public health issue; it is a human rights issue. Emerging advertising strategies and practices such as advergames, personalized and integrated advertising are permeating the digital environments in which children play, communicate and search for information and the use of algorithms and gathering of children’s data adds to this complex issue.

This issue is gaining momentum, but it remains under-appreciated, and yet of growing importance in our increasingly digital world with powerful algorithms and data capture. Some countries are taking action but more national and international action is needed.

On 7th July 2021 CAP-2030 will bring together leading experts and advocates from across the world to raise awareness, debate and discuss solutions to this critical issue for children’s futures. Join the conversation!

 

Date: Wednesday 7th July 2021
Time: 1:30 – 3:00 pm BST
Livestreamed here

Register

The Panel

• Moderator: Prof Alice Roberts, Anatomist and biological anthropologist, author and broadcaster, and Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham.
• Dr Chris van Tulleken, an infectious diseases doctor at UCLH, and one of the BBC’s leading science presenters having worked on many flagship Health & Science programmes.
• Dr Raul Mercer, Specialist in Pediatrics and Childcare and Member of the FLACSO Social Sciences and Health Program, Argentina.
• Mutale Nkonde, founding CEO of AI For the People (AFP) a non profit communications agency and incoming fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
• Dr. Ranjana Ferrão Souza Cordeiro, Assistant Professor, V.M. Salgaocar College of Law, GoA
• Professor Alyshia Galvez, Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at Lehman College

 

Learn more about the impact of commercial marketing in the documentary film “A future for the world’s children?”