The sweets brand Skittles collected over 3,000 friends since registeringa profile on social networking site Bebo in early July. Last week theWalt Disney company acquired the social networking site Penguin Club,which formerly carried no advertising, but is now expected to be used topromote Disney products.
Junk food advertising was banned from children's television earlier thisyear, but internet promotion is largely unregulated. A loophole in theAdvertising Standards Authority's code of conduct means that anythingclassed as 'editorial', such as website games, is exempt from the code.One example is the 'Kids Zone' on the McDonald's website.
Jeanette Longfield, co-ordinator at the Children's Food Campaign, said,'Internet and mobile phone advertising is as bad as televisionadvertising, if not worse. At least with television parents can see whattheir children are seeing. With mobiles and internet it is much morepersonal and private to the child.'
