Do your students realise how much of what they see is designed to sell them something?

A spoonful of sugar is no longer the preserve of magical nannies. Indeed, some food and drink manufacturers have become so adept at heaping spoons full of fat, salt and sugar into food that the government is determined to take action to reduce the promotion of food and drinks high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) to children.

Ofcom, the regulator for the communications industry, has been charged with tightening the rules on advertising food and drink to children. At the end of this week, the consultation period on what action to take closes. However, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and various other groups have expressed their dissatisfaction that a 9pm watershed for HFSS advertising is not being considered.

Healthy bytes

It's an issue with direct relevance to young people, and while many schools are actively assessing their own healthy status, helping students to understand the influence and effects of the food advertising industry is a vital part of health education.

In order to have a shared understanding of what you mean by healthy eating, explore the Wired for Health website ( With four sites aimed at students aged 5-16, it offers games and quizzes bound up with helpful information and advice - a good place to start.

Private eye

When it comes to looking at how HFSS foods are advertised to young people, encourage your students to become detectives. Emphasise that it's a tricky case: they must discover how young people are influenced by food and drink advertisers. They should write up their findings in their case file.

Initially, discuss whether they feel influenced by advertising. Most of us reject the thought that we are impressionable and easily persuaded, but emphasise how clever people can be at suggesting ideas and influencing us. The entertainer Derren Brown is a master at revealing our vulnerability. You might want to view some examples from his website that show the subtlety of manipulating the mind (

Develop awareness of the extent of advertising by pairing up your young detectives and asking them to interview each other. The interviewee must describe their journey home from school, while the detective notes down possible advertising spots on the journey, eg hoardings, bus-stop ads, shops.

Child catchers

Challenge each pair to list as many ways as they can in which advertisers hook children into brands. A Which? report identifies 40 different methods. Their Child Catchers publication illuminates a top 12 list, including texting, toys and product placement ( Explore this list with your students and, dependent on age and ability, allocate a number of the advertising methods, asking them to find and explain examples for their case file.

Students can also investigate the Sustain website for examples of how children are being targeted though the internet ( Again, ask them to research and explain other examples of such practices. Check their understanding of the techniques by asking them to utilise the same methods in a web page advertising fruit or vegetables. The designs can be paper plans or actual web pages.

Studies have shown that the primary medium for advertising to children is television. Survey the class to ascertain the peak viewing times and whether they watch children's programmes or other programmes such as soaps. Advise your detectives that they should carry out a stakeout, looking for examples of advertising of foods and drinks on television during peak viewing times for young people.

Having conducted their stakeout or survey, encourage them to present the results as a chart, collating the results of the class if possible. Discuss their findings and whether they concur with studies that indicate that the most heavily advertised products are breakfast cereals, confectionary, soft drinks, savoury snacks and fast-food restaurants. Did they see any examples of advertising of healthy foods?

Ad or take away?

Once they have a better understanding of the issue, students can examine the three options given by Ofcom: timing restrictions on the advertising of certain foods and drinks; time restrictions on all food and drinks; reducing the advertising of all food and drink. A summary of the issues and the pros and cons of each option is at

There are precedents elsewhere for banning advertising aimed at children. Sweden, notably, does not allow any advertising aimed at children under 12 years old. Older students can identify the arguments in this speech defending this position by the Swedish consumer ombudsman:

Would students agree with prohibiting advertising HFSS foods before 9pm? Ofcom estimates that this would lose TV channels up to £240m a year, leading to more repeats and imported programmes. However, the FSA estimates health benefits of between £50m and £990m. Students can devise their own fourth option, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses, and presenting their ideas to the class. Finally, they can debate and vote on the options.

Curriculum links

Key stage 2

PSHE & citizenship 1a, 1c, 2a-b, 2d-f, 2k, 3a;
English (En1) 1a-f, 2a-e; (En2) 3a-g, 5a-g, (En3) 1a-e, 2a-f;
ICT 3a-b;
Maths (Ma4) 2b-c;
Science (Sc2) 2b

Key stage 3

Citizenship 1f-i, 2a-c, 3a-c;
English (En1) 1a-g, 2a-f; (En2) 1e-f, 4a-d, 5a-d; (En3) 1e-k;
ICT 3a-c;
Maths (Ma4) 1a, 3a-b, 4a;
PSHE 2a, 2f-g;
Science (Sc2) 2a

Key stage 4

Citizenship 1e-j, 2a-c, 3a-c;
ICT 3a-b;
Maths (Ma4) 1a, 3a-b, 4a;
PSHE 2a-b, 2e

Scottish curriculum

English language (levels C-F);
Environmental studies: science (levels C-F);
Health education (levels C-F);
ICT (levels C-F);
Maths (levels C-F)

· Students and teachers can find a complete KS3 lesson on advertising to children on the Guardian's daily newsdesk for children,