• The Australian, Brandweek, Monday, June 8, 2009 11:15 AM

Health lobbyists in Australia are predicting that the Preventative Health Taskforce -- set up by Health Minister Nicola Roxon last year -- will recommend a ban on advertising of unhealthy foods and beverages when it releases a report this month on how the country should fight chronic diseases such as obesity and over-consumption of alcohol.

Glen Wiggs, director of the Foundation for Advertising Research, feels the advertising and media industries have just six months to reduce the amount of advertising of unhealthy food or the government will do it for them.

The case for alcohol advertising and sponsorship of sports is more dire, according to Wiggs, who has been one of the most vocal defenders of the ad industry. "There's no way [the government] can have harsh regulation for food and be liberal with alcohol," he says. "I think you'll find maybe sport sponsorship might go."

Back in Hollywood, meanwhile, moviemakers seem more dependent than ever on fast feeders' deep pockets even though there seems to be intense pressure from the feds on marketing to children in the U.S., T.L. Stanley reports in Brandweek.

Read the whole story at The Australian, Brandweek »