The Sunday Times’ India Knight has critical words for Ofcom over its junk food (HFSS) adverts ban around children’s programming. She writes:

I’m seldom in favour of bans - they presuppose unimaginable stupidity, and I like to cling to the forlorn hope that this country isn’t, in fact, entirely populated by morons - and Ofcom’s decision seems like a drop in the ocean at best and pointless at worst. It’s quite likely to result in at least one commercial network getting rid of its children’s output altogether, which isn’t what I’d call a result.

More to the point, the consumer watchdog Which? pointed out last week that advertising has anyway long since moved on, and that its most insidious and captivating examples were no longer to be found on telly but online. Manufacturers of health-sapping rubbish are determined to get hold of our children by whatever means and they’re succeeding, by disguising their ads as games, e-mailable ‘fun’ video clips, phone texts, and so on.

Knight then goes on to describe her family’s shopping and eating habits and also summarises a survey performed by the British Potato Council. I’m not joking…