Children are commonly exposed to advertisements promoting junk food, but children's comics are less recognised.
The Beano is a British comic for children, which has been published for almost 90 years. BMJ editor Kamran Abbasi reflects on the comic's role in inadvertently promoting junk food and child obesity:
CITATION: The Beano, junk food, and public health
BMJ 2023; 380 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p259 (Published 02 February 2023)
'The Beano is a success. From its first issue in 1938 to today’s multimedia enterprise, the comic has ridden every wave in social norms and publishing strategies...
'It isn’t hard to understand why almost 50 million children have visited beano.com, especially given its claim to be “100% safe for children.” It’s harder to understand why the Beano leans on junk food brands for its digital content. Safety, then, is in the eye of the beholder...
'Inadvertently or not, the Beano is promoting junk food to children, to the detriment of public health, and it should stop. Today’s “innocent fun” is tomorrow’s health crisis.'
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All - www.hifa.org ), a global community with more than 20,000 members in 180 countries interacting in four languages. HIFA health brings stakeholders together to accelerate progress towards universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based non-profit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Twitter: @hifa_org Email: neil@hifa.orgall
