Advertising to Children

The mission of this Workgroup is to work with OPHA members, affiliated organizations, relevant provincial and national partners, and others to create an Ontario where children have the right not to be targets of commercial advertising and the right to be protected from the harmful effects of commercial marketing.

As a recently formed workgroup, our goals include:

  1. to develop an advocacy agenda for OPHA's recently passed resolution, A Ban on All Commercial Advertising Targeted to Children Under Thirteen Years of Age;
  2. develop and promote effective media literacy and citizen education information for children and parents to help cope with the negative effects of commercial marketing, and to build a broad and diverse coalition of individuals, groups and organizations to support such advocacy;
  3. be a forum to foster collaboration among stakeholders from across the province concerned about the negative effects of commercial marketing to children, including but not limited to those interested in the following issues: unhealthy food advertising, tobacco and alcohol promotion, the sexualization of childhood, unhealthy weights, and physical inactivity promotion;
  4. promote the issue of protecting children from the harmful effects of commercial marketing as critical to public health goals;
  5. develop and/or disseminate effective media literacy materials to public health authorities to support parents' interactions with commercial marketing targeted to children.