Green Assembly Member Jenny Jones accuses the Mayor of London of “making a mockery” of his health responsibilities by endorsing companies whose products are associated with childhood obesity.
Below are Baroness Jenny Jones questions to Boris Johnson, submitted for October’s Mayors Question Time:
Mayor’s sponsorship deals with Coca Cola and McDonalds
In an open letter to the chief medical officer for England, the Royal College of Paediatric and Child Health, the Royal College of General Practitioners and a coalition of other health professionals said “an entire generation is being destroyed by a diet of junk food and sugary drinks”. In light of this comment and your recent deals with Coca Cola and McDonald’s to sponsor two of your programmes FreeSport and Capital Clean Up (which targets, amongst others, youth groups and takes their branding into the school environment) are you making a mockery of your health responsibilities by giving your Mayoral endorsement to companies whose products are associated with childhood obesity?
TfL bus stops converted into Walker’s Crisps tweet activated vending machines
As part of Walkers Crisps marketing stunt ‘Do us a Flavour’, TfL allowed a number of its bus stops to be converted into temporary vending machines that dispensed free packets of crisps. Concerns have been expressed about this type of direct marketing of processed junk snacks, particularly as children congregate at bus stops and can be disproportionately influenced by such marketing. Given your health responsibilities, will you instruct TfL to reject any future advertising bids from a) companies associated with high sugar, fat and processed foods and drinks linked to childhood obesity and b) companies whose products are perceived to undermine or are at odds with public health messages?