Talkback: TV has a role in fighting the flab

Eating, drinking and exercising are central to our lives, but do they have to do with the media, particularly television?

The answer was best exemplified by the late Paul Jeffries. He showed that not only do you need to get the balance of diet and exercise right but you also need to communicate what you've achieved in dealing with obesity simply and effectively. That's where the media comes in.

Television has a role to play in addressing a modern curse: poor exercise and eating habits. It can help encourage people to exercise and to improve their eating habits.

Professor Cliff Tasman-Jones puts it simply: it's about energy in and energy out.

Getting the balance right in the energy equation requires getting those most at risk to do something about their diet and their exercise. It is also about society making it easier to exercise and to get healthy food.

Jeffries wrote a successful book and fronted a television show on his achievements in getting his weight down and getting fit. That sort of role modelling is important.

This year, all three main free television channels have run shows showing how to lose weight and get fit. The channels - and advertisers and communications agencies - subscribe to the Advertising Standards Authority codes for advertising food and have signed the Food Industry Accord with food manufacturers and retailers.

Under the accord, the advertising authority is to review its codes for advertising food and for advertising to children.

Some people argue that the only way to cut consumption, especially among children, is to ban food advertisements to children. They zoom in on fast-food advertising as if children are buying hamburgers when the most popular fast foods are fish and chips and Asian takeaways - products that are not advertised.

They seem to forget that children rarely buy the food for the family. That's the parents' role and the eating habits of the household are very much in the hands of adults.

As a medium, television has the ability to help influence those parents and their children. By raising awareness and showing parents what can be achieved by a simple approach, television is playing a role in addressing obesity.

Food manufacturers and retailers can help by adding healthier options to their ranges, highlighting what's good and advertising those features.

Unfortunately it's illegal to promote the healthy benefits of food, so the law needs changing as well.

Would it not be sensible for food producers to advertise the health benefits of their products - within strict guidelines? The answer has to be yes.

* Bruce Wallace is executive director of the NZ Television Broadcasters' Council and chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority.

* Talk Back explores the issues that matter to the media, and the world of advertising, marketing, public relations and communications. Contact marketing writer Karen Chan at karen.chan@nzherald.co.nz with ideas or contributions.