However, perhaps ISBA is not outraged enough. This is a tawdry piece of work, and as any market researcher worth their salt will tell you, certain to produce a biased sample and therefore an unreliable result.
That there are issues around the whole business of marketing to children is not in doubt, as the proliferation of surveys and studies in recent years clearly indicates. Yet this is not the way in which to gather evidence on the issue.
No matter how flawed the methodology or dubious the result, the findings of the survey will be used as yet another stick with which to beat advertisers.
For politicians it is an easy win. No MP or government minister incurs the wrath of his or her constituents for criticising advertising to children. For the DfE, meanwhile, under attack from the education establishment, there is no harm in deflecting attention elsewhere.
The suggestion by the Advertising Association (AA) that it could undertake its own survey is not the solution; it will lead to another war of words about research methodologies and claims of bias.
The answer, instead, must be a comprehensive study conducted in a proper and rigorous manner. More importantly, it must be a joint initiative between the government, interested parties, ISBA members and the AA.
As long as advertisers are excluded from the process of monitoring marketing to children, which the DfE seems intent on, this issue will never be satisfactorily resolved.
Noelle.McElhatton@haymarket.com