Each year the Centre for Exercise Nutrition and Health Sciences are pleased to celebrate the life and work of Professor Jerry Morris with our public memorial lecture.

The marketing of unhealthy foods and non-alcoholic beverages (hereafter: food) has been strongly implicated in the rising levels of childhood obesity worldwide. The proliferation of food marketing, including in digital spaces, has led to concerns about its influence on the health and wellbeing of children, particularly given their cognitive and developmental vulnerabilities.

There is increasing evidence to suggest that food marketing is highly prevalent in the digital media young people use most frequently and that his has implications for dietary health. Exposure to powerful food marketing messages adversely affects children’s food behaviours and behavioural antecedents (norms, beliefs, attitudes). In parallel, evidence suggests that restrictive policies can achieve meaningful reductions in the nature and extent of unhealthy food marketing as well as reduced purchasing of unhealthy foods.

While effective regulation of the digital world may be more challenging and has yet to be achieved in any country, some Governments (such as the UK), are seeking to strengthen existing food marketing policies including the digital component.

Effective policies are needed to ensure that young people can participate freely in the digital world, benefitting from the information age to the maximum degree, without their dietary health being adversely affected as they do. The presentation will use the latest evidence to explain and dissect these issues and their implications for public health research and policy.