Following leaked reports of the White Paper, press reports claimed the government was proposing an outright ban on ads before 9pm.
What the health White Paper has actually proposed is new measures, decided upon by media watchdog Ofcom following a consultation with advertisers, that will reduce children's exposure to junk food ads and not ban them completely.
The paper discusses giving less advertising slots on commercial broadcasters to foods with a red light on the government's new traffic light system, which will appear on food packaging to denote that they are unhealthy.
Another option is to use cartoon characters, role models or celebrities to tell children to eat in moderation as part of a balanced diet.
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising said it largely welcomed the White Paper, but said that the traffic light system would not promote the cooperation needed to achieve behavioural changes. Separately, the Advertising Association said an outright ban would be "a short-term, populist and disproportionate response".
Marina Palomba, legal director of the IPA, said: "While the IPA embraces the need to protect vulnerable groups, there is little or no evidence that the proposed advertising restrictions would have the desired effect on obesity levels."
Options will be dependent upon the Department of Health and the Food Standards Agency traffic light system, which will highlight food high in fat, salt and sugar.
The government has also warned that unless a significant effort is made to change current junk food advertising by 2007, then a pre-watershed ban could still be put in place. This could severely damage commercial broadcasters, such as ITV, which relies on 30% of its children's TV ad revenue coming from "unhealthy" food brands.
Recent figures from Nielsen Media Research found that food and drink firms' primetime adspend reached £190m in the 12 months to October 31.
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