Free Republic

TV advertising ban on junk food Advertising junk food on television before 9pm could be banned if proposals in the Government's Public Health White Paper, to be published tomorrow, become law.Dr John Reid, the Health Secretary, had been expected to propose banning such advertising during children's programming, in response to the increasing incidence of obesity in Britain.But figures from Ofcom, the communications watchdog, showing that 70 per cent of television watched by four- to 15-year-olds is between 6pm and 9pm, mean that Dr Reid is likely to propose harsher restrictions and, unless food manufacturers agree to a voluntary code,...

A free-market conservative organization -- called a "527 political organization" after a section in the tax code -- goes public on Friday with hard-hitting independent issue ads on television. It's about time. The ads ask viewers to imagine how Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass), the likely Democratic presidential candidate, would have reacted to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, especially considering his voting record of opposition to spending on measures to increase U.S. security. The ads, which may provoke an uproar in the media because they show footage shot at the World Trade Center site after the attacks, contrast Kerry's...

Young Americans are exposed to more television commercials for beer than for sneakers, gum or jeans, according to a study released Tuesday. Young people ages 12 to 20 saw two beer or ale ads in 2001 for every three such commercials aired on programs viewed primarily by adults, the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University found. "The alcohol industry monitoring their own advertising and current standards aren't protecting youth from alcohol marketing," said Jim O'Hara, the center's executive director. The study analyzed $811 million spent on alcohol advertising on TV during 2001, representing 208,909 ads that were...

Filed at 6:11 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans yanked a radio ad Thursday that was aimed at black voters in Kansas and Missouri comparing Social Security benefits to slavery reparations -- except paid to whites by blacks. It was the latest skirmish in a multistate war over Social Security ads pegged to November's congressional elections. The commercial was paid for by a Republican interest group and aired in the Kansas City area on an urban contemporary station whose listeners are predominantly black. GOPAC, which is headed by Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, said the ad was a mistake and withdrew...

<p>Already under fire in the ''Sex for Sam'' controversy in which a couple was arrested on charges of lewd behavior in St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Boston Beer Co. agreed yesterday to temporarily pull a TV ad for its Sam Adams Light beer that a law-enforcement group says encourages underage drinking.</p>