Paid Members Kaz Hayashi Posted June 8, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted June 8, 2020 I’m possibly having a Mandela Effect moment (didn’t want to bump that thread from 4 years ago). I’m almost certain I remember a law, or British a Broadcasting policy passing in late 90’s/early 00’s that prevented kids toy & food adverts playing before the watershed. It was deemed unethical to play such adverts during kids TV broadcast (channels such as Nickelodeon & CN). Obviously that’s completely out of the window now. So I can’t find any info about the ban, and the friends I have who might know, can’t remember it. So TIL it possibly didn’t happen. Can anyone remember the Bam and help me to prove that my TIL is a lie? I’m trying to find out more specifically when the law changed again, allowing such adverts to broadcast. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merzbow Posted June 8, 2020 Share Posted June 8, 2020 (edited) I'm pretty sure there was a ban on adverts for unhealthy foods during kids shows in the 00's. Could this be what you were thinking of?https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/media-releases/2007/ofcom-publishes-final-statement-on-the-television-advertising-of-food-and-drink-products-to-children Edited June 8, 2020 by Merzbow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted June 8, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted June 8, 2020 1 minute ago, Kaz Hayashi said: I’m possibly having a Mandela Effect moment (didn’t want to bump that thread from 4 years ago). I’m almost certain I remember a law, or British a Broadcasting policy passing in late 90’s/early 00’s that prevented kids toy & food adverts playing before the watershed. It was deemed unethical to play such adverts during kids TV broadcast (channels such as Nickelodeon & CN). Obviously that’s completely out of the window now. So I can’t find any info about the ban, and the friends I have who might know, can’t remember it. So TIL it possibly didn’t happen. Can anyone remember the Bam and help me to prove that my TIL is a lie? I’m trying to find out more specifically when the law changed again, allowing such adverts to broadcast. Cheers This sounds extremely familiar to me too! I know currently there are guidelines on how kids' products are advertised, in terms of not imploring the child to buy it, or suggesting that the kid would be bullied/inferior for not owning the product. But I definitely remember this being a thing that kids' advertising was far more regulated - I have strong memories of watching kids' TV in the late '90s/early '00s and the adverts being full of loan and insurance ads and so on. It is a thing for food, though - high fat, sugar or salt foods can't be advertised at a time when the majority of the audience are likely to be children, and I don't think they advertise stuff like toys in Happy Meals any more (is that even still a thing?).  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merzbow Posted June 8, 2020 Share Posted June 8, 2020 Happy Meals still have toys, there was a huge thing last year or so when they added Nintendo figures and people were going wild for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Kaz Hayashi Posted June 8, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted June 8, 2020 4 minutes ago, BomberPat said: This sounds extremely familiar to me too! I know currently there are guidelines on how kids' products are advertised, in terms of not imploring the child to buy it, or suggesting that the kid would be bullied/inferior for not owning the product. But I definitely remember this being a thing that kids' advertising was far more regulated - I have strong memories of watching kids' TV in the late '90s/early '00s and the adverts being full of loan and insurance ads and so on. It is a thing for food, though - high fat, sugar or salt foods can't be advertised at a time when the majority of the audience are likely to be children, and I don't think they advertise stuff like toys in Happy Meals any more (is that even still a thing?).  Yeah, I knew the good thing was still relevant, but I think stricter guidelines we’re being considered around 2012 or so (I think). The toy ad ban was so memorable to me. It was more a case of the sudden change. Every advert on Cartoon Network (or whichever I had on) was basically the TV equivalent of the last chapter of an Argos catalogue. NERF, Action Man and everything in between, but then all of a sudden fuck all, and as you say, we ended up with home & insurance adverts. I swear it’s the reason my dad ended up with a shit load of carriage clocks & Parker pens. I just can’t seem to find any info about it happening. I haven’t looked that hard in fairness, other than a few basic searches, but I assumed that would be enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanky316 Posted June 8, 2020 Share Posted June 8, 2020 Here's the food one https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/47746/Television-Advertising-of-Food-and-Drink-Products-to-Children-Final-statement-.pdf I can't think of one relating to the toys though but I'm sure there was something along those lines linked in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBacon Posted June 8, 2020 Share Posted June 8, 2020 33 minutes ago, Merzbow said: Happy Meals still have toys, there was a huge thing last year or so when they added Nintendo figures and gaming nerds were going wild for them. Fixed that for you there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members mim731 Posted June 8, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted June 8, 2020 1 hour ago, Kaz Hayashi said: I’m possibly having a Mandela Effect moment (didn’t want to bump that thread from 4 years ago). I’m almost certain I remember a law, or British a Broadcasting policy passing in late 90’s/early 00’s that prevented kids toy & food adverts playing before the watershed. It was deemed unethical to play such adverts during kids TV broadcast (channels such as Nickelodeon & CN). Obviously that’s completely out of the window now. So I can’t find any info about the ban, and the friends I have who might know, can’t remember it. So TIL it possibly didn’t happen. Can anyone remember the Bam and help me to prove that my TIL is a lie? I’m trying to find out more specifically when the law changed again, allowing such adverts to broadcast. Cheers I used to work in advertising ops for a kids-TV channel 2010-2012, and we had restrictions in place based on HSFS (high salt, fat, sugar as per the link in Lanky's post above) pre watershed, and there were big fines for breaching it, so we would have to have ads approved by an independent body before we scheduled them. As for the toy thing, I think there were restrictions on having them at the beginning or end of an ad break, but I can't quite remember the specifics.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Cod Eye Posted June 8, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted June 8, 2020 The only thing about toy advertising I could think of, was from the US. At one point the toy companies had really strict regulations on when/where they could advertise, but is was relaxed in(I want to say) the early 80's? That's when we started to get the Transformers, He-Man and other cartoons of that ilk that were only made to sell the toys(before becoming a big thing in their own rights). Over here, there was a big cracking down on advertising shit food to kids that's already been mentioned, but that's all I remember. McDonald's were talking about scrapping the toys in Happy Meals around the time they had that huge "health" push when they started with the salads that had more fat in them than the burgers, when their business was reportedly very close to going under. I remember something about the toy component of the meal being worth 49p(or something around there), and you either having the option to not have the toy at all, or being able to buy the toy without the meal for ten bob(this may be something I mis-remembered though). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members PJ Power Posted June 9, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted June 9, 2020 TIL that Sophie B. Hawking's 1992 hit song "Damn! I wish I was your lover" bases its lyrics on a real life situation where she had a lesbian crush on a female friend whom according to Sophie was caught up in a loveless relationship. It starts to make sense once you read the lyrics, but it isn't so blatent that it couldn't also describe a hetero relationship. Cracking tune. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members mim731 Posted June 11, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted June 11, 2020 TIL (via my 2 year old asking Alexa to play a song called Three Little Kittens) that Lisa Loeb of "Stay" fame is now a very successful children's singer, with multiple mega successful kids albums.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Coconut Posted June 11, 2020 Share Posted June 11, 2020 3 hours ago, mim731 said: Lisa Loeb of "Stay" fame Just seeing that name after so many years gave me gooch tension. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBacon Posted June 11, 2020 Share Posted June 11, 2020 Just looked her up. Still would. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wordsfromlee Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 TIL that the horses on the Lloyds Bank adverts are painted black as horses aren’t naturally that uniform in colour . I'm sure they'll be added to the heap along with Little Britain and League of Gentlemen in no time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Tommy! Posted June 15, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted June 15, 2020 1 minute ago, wordsfromlee said: TIL that the horses on the Lloyds Bank adverts are painted black as horses aren’t naturally that uniform in colour . I'm sure they'll be added to the heap along with Little Britain and League of Gentlemen in no time.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.