Obesity experts are calling for Cricket Australia to end its sponsorship deal with fast food company KFC because of the message it sends to young people.

Their concerns are raised in the latest issue of the Medical Journal of Australia.

One of the co-authors, Professor Stephen Colagiuri of the Institute of Obesity Nutrition and Exercise at Sydney University, says the nation is in the grip of an obesity epidemic.

He says young people consider cricketers as icons and heroes, and people are influenced by what they do.

"We think it is unhelpful and even irresponsible in this climate of increasing obesity and overweight in children, adolescents and young adults in Australia to be heavily promoting through our sporting icons fast foods and unhealthy eating habits," he said.

Professor Colagiuri says it is irresponsible and unhelpful for Cricket Australia to be promoting unhealthy food by being sponsored by.

"A lot of young people are influenced by what they do including in this particular instance the eating of unhealthy food," he said.

But Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young says it will not be terminating KFC's sponsorship.

"No not at all we're very grateful for the support they provide us, and the support they provide us along with the support we get from other sponsors helps us keep cricket on the local ovals, in school grounds, and at an elite level it helps us keep our international teams in the field as well," he said.

Mr Young says there is nothing wrong with KFC in moderation.

"The important thing is to take a balanced approach to nutrition, to physical activity and to treat things like KFC as an occasional treat," he said.

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Pete:

06 Oct 2008 9:43:08am

Wowsers!

Merv Hughes and Shane Warne did okay despite their girth.

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PaulB:

06 Oct 2008 10:14:46am


I recommend the immediate establishment of an Institute, to investigate the current epidemic of "Pontificating Expert Boards", that this country is currently suffering from. This plague of do-gooders & know-all's, simply drain the life out of life.

The only remedy to ease the symptoms that I know of, is eating some fried chicken, in front of the TV, accompanied by a 6 pack of alco-pops and finished off with a rich, full flavoured cigarette.

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PaulS:

06 Oct 2008 10:42:39am

And call this new institute "Sports Watch".

How many volunteers do you reckon you'd get to do this "watching of sport?"

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Kerry:

06 Oct 2008 9:46:48am

Same old story, as long as they're pumping funds into cricket who cares what they are selling, right?

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cpk:

06 Oct 2008 9:54:32am

about bloody time...

why dont we ban fast food from TV advertisements also, and newspapers, and the radio, and internet advertising.

CA should be seeking sponsership from companies that produce healthy food, rather than fat filled burgers.

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dragon:

06 Oct 2008 10:15:07am

Why don't we ban people from making stupid decisions .......
- Like eating too much
- Like drinking too much alcohol
- Like Borrowing beyong their means
- Like taking drugs
- Like driving too fast ....................

Seeing the pattern here ?
If not, thn the message is ...
"Take some responsibilty over your own actions and be accountible"

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farquar:

06 Oct 2008 10:38:36am

I think you quite miss the point.
Young children do not have the same decision making capabilities as adults. I do agree with the fact that adults need to be held responsible for their own actions but this sort of advertising sends mixed messages to vulnerable children.
As children get older and have more independence the food choices they make for themselves could very well be influenced by the adverts they saw as a child.

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NT boy:

06 Oct 2008 11:16:32am

Adults buy the food, they make the choice.. blame the adults not the kids.. When my kids were growing up we had KFC once in a while, and my kids learnt to apreciate it as a treat. If people are to lazy to ensure their kids dont eat correctly, dont blame Cricket Australia.

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farquar:

06 Oct 2008 12:29:34pm

I think of reread my post you will see i didn't blame Cricket Australia. I was merely making the point that as vulnerable people children do need a certain amount of protection.
They are quite rightly censored from illicit and violent material, why not junk food advertising? How can we bemoan childhood obesity on one hand and allow child directed junk food advertising on the other?
I know that it is up to the parent what the child ultimately eats but i for one would rather have my child bugging me to by that particular brand of apple because it comes with a groovy new trading card than some heavily processed cheese and biscuit snack.
Advertising is so effective it is madness we are not using it for good.

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Bertrand:

06 Oct 2008 12:46:38pm

KFC doesnt cause childhood obesity. Eating too much KFC, or almost any other food, combined with too little sleep, too little physical activity and a range of other circumstances is what causes obesity.

We could ban white bread on the same basis. You eat your fill of white bread every meal time and you will get substantially fatter than if you did the same with KFC.

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farquar:

06 Oct 2008 12:58:41pm

It seems my posts are being taken out of context. I never said ban KFC at all, not sure where you got that from.
As for banning white bread i'm with you there however by what measure you can say you'd get (substantially) fatter on white bread than KFC i cannot tell. White bread may be nutritionally empty but it does not contain the saturated fats of KFC.

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dragon:

06 Oct 2008 11:21:07am

Yes ! But as sensible adults, shouldn't we be responsible for their education and what they eat ?
You seem to have re-inforced my point with your very sensible advice to your son (below).
Children at an impressionable age like the 5-13 yo should not have enough money on them to be able to go and buy KFC, alcohol or anything else which is bad for them !

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farquar:

06 Oct 2008 10:26:08am

I certainly agree with a ban. I was at the supermarket and my son was asking if we could buy something called "munchables". These are basically disgusting processed ham sticks, high in all sorts of rubbish. After showing him the ingredients list and explaining to him what's in it (he's 9) he said no thank you.
When i asked him why he wanted it in the first place he said "they look like fun on the telly".

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M:

06 Oct 2008 10:26:29am

I think the problem is that such companies simply don't pay as much...if they are willing to pay at all.

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m1scha:

06 Oct 2008 9:59:30am

I hope willows do not become an endangered species, they; whoever they are, may want cricket to be played with bats made out of environmentally friendly stuff, like recycled aluminium cans.

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the blob:

06 Oct 2008 10:01:49am

I don't know why Cricket Aust would want to be associated with KFC.

I don't know why KFC would want to be associated with cricket.

I don't know why anyone would want to be associated with either cricket or KFC.


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dk:

06 Oct 2008 10:44:19am

Not sure why anyone would want to be associated with you, negative nelly.

Cricket needs sponsorship, if KFC doesn't, who will?

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PaulS:

06 Oct 2008 11:44:10am

I would suggest that KFC are well aware that the majority of people who watch cricket enjoy it vicariously, by watching others play because they cannot or will not play themselves.

They know that their target market well, and have a ready-made audience who will sit scoffing the stuff down while giving advice or criticism to the Aussie bowler or batsman on the telly as to "what they shoulda done that ball!"

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NT boy:

06 Oct 2008 12:02:24pm

because children that participate in sports like cricket as less likey to be couch or computer chair jockeys. Which means healthier kids, and that is what is needed in australia, not banning sponsorship of sporting groups.

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Realist:

06 Oct 2008 12:44:53pm

KFC has money and sells delicious food. Cricket is fun to play and watch.

What I can't understand is why wowsers and nannies feel that nobody should be allowed to exercise individual freedom and personal responsibility?

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mlad:

06 Oct 2008 10:04:42am

"obesity experts"

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DeepFritz:

06 Oct 2008 10:08:07am

KFC chicken fat helps one swing the ball, though it makes slips catching a nightmare!

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JC:

06 Oct 2008 10:09:40am

As a person that spent numerous years auditing primary schools in Victoria I find it more abhorrent that sporting facilities/goods are locked away in sheds gathering dust and cobwebs and not being utilised.

Food plays an important part in our everyday life, but so too does the sedintary lifestyle that so many people live (both young and hold). The latest "craze/fad" - Wii Fit! Why not actually get outside into the fresh air and particpate against other humans rather than some computer generated image? Exercise for the lazy!


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Vulcan:

06 Oct 2008 10:09:46am

Oh, now this is becoming absurd! Okay - no problems with sponsorship from cigarette and alcohol companies being banned, but fast food? Really - whether a person eats or does not eat fast food is a personal and parental responsibility...and yes, in moderation, what's wrong with that?

If we ban fast food sponsorship what will happen to vital sporting sponsorship? What will happen to the sports we all love to go and watch...no doubt whilst munching on a hot dog, meat pie or KFC and slurping on a cola?

Hmmmm, possible scenarios if we are going to be politically correct..."The Australian Greens Cup"...or how about "The Non-violent, Ecologically-Responsible, Low-Fat Shield"

Yeah - right!

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bjh:

06 Oct 2008 10:56:04am

When I heard the words "these Olympic Games brought to you by (buy) McDonald's" I knew that things had gone too far.

Thankfully the Paralympics weren't brought (bought) to us by anyone so I could watch it ad free on the ABC.

Commercial TV (both pay and free to air) are both dinosaurs that don't know they are extinct yet, at least in my mind anyway.

b

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Matt:

06 Oct 2008 10:18:21am

I have an idea. Why doesn't the government start an advertising campaign for the fast food chains in a similar way they have with the anti-smoking commercials? Instead of the typical healthy, photoshopped youngsters gormandizing on greasy KFC with grins on their faces, why not show obese, unfit and sickly people waddling out of the restuarant and then pictures of clogged arteries?

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Akroc:

06 Oct 2008 12:16:26pm

"Every greasy hamburger is doing you damage...."

Somehow I don't think the fatso food companies will warm to the idea of putting gruesome pictures of clogged arteries on the packets a la cigarette packets, but I'm having a laugh imagining it. Instant appetite killer!

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Captain Coconut:

06 Oct 2008 10:20:16am

Rumour has it that Eddie Hemmings used to go for a bucket of KFC washed down with a few pots at the lunch break, then come out and knock over a few Aussies with his spin bowling.

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LOZZA:

06 Oct 2008 10:47:56am

Shouldn't we also ban Ronald McDonald house as well, due to the fact that it can be viewed as promoting eating of fast food.

Like everything else in todays society it is a about balance and accepting the actions of your decisions and not trying to put the blame elsewhere.

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Stop_The_Madness:

06 Oct 2008 11:28:27am

There's nothing wrong with eating a bit of KFC occasionally, as long as you then get out and spend a few house slogging around cricket balls.

The problem is people picking up on one message (ie. eat KFC) without also picking up on the accompanying message (ie. play sport and be active).

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lukemac:

06 Oct 2008 11:31:20am

What obesity epidemic????

6% of children are obease, 5% are under weight the other 89% are in the middle. With the vast majority in the health weight range.
Sound to me like the diet industry is doing it's dammest to convince us that everyone needs to go on a diet.


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dalek:

06 Oct 2008 11:33:47am

And all of this is just adding to KFC's media exposure - good work, medical journal. It is just the thing that companies like KFC like.

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Yabbie:

06 Oct 2008 11:34:17am

So, we have seen the dismissal of..

the 'Benson and Hedges world series cup' as smoking is bad for you;
the 'VB one day series- gone' as drinking is bad for yoou ; and
the 'KFC one day searies' as eating too much fatty food is bad for you.

Yet the '3 test searies' remains when CHILDREN WHO USE MOBILE PHONES ARE 10 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO DEVELOP A BRAIN TUMOR!!!

Where do we stop, the 'Metameucil one day searies?. Actually, exessive metameucil is not good for you, in a similar way that exessive smoking, alcohol or fried chicken are not good for you.


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Gabba:

06 Oct 2008 12:54:07pm

Let's get rid of advertising altogether. It's all a crock anyway, trying to milk money out of consumers with deception and sensationalism.

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Anton:

06 Oct 2008 12:04:04pm

Time for another interventionist committee.

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Peter D:

06 Oct 2008 12:04:35pm

What a lot of rot this is!!! People are responsible themselves for what goes into their mouth. Blaming food companies for peoples' failings is just a cop out and a failure of the individual to acknowledge they have a problem. There is no problem that cannot be fixed. Blaming a food company is not going to make your problems go away.

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Steve:

06 Oct 2008 12:33:56pm

Oh, I don't know. I stopped buying Pura milk with they stole the Sheffield Shield.

Just rename it the KFC Shield and I'll boycott them too.

Perhaps KFC in their continued sponsorship of the Australian cricket team could have the team named "The KFC Chickens" or something equally moronic.

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LizzyE:

06 Oct 2008 12:55:10pm

I honestly don't remember the last time I saw a sponsor on a teams shirt and thought, you know what I think I have to eat that, or buy that brand to be like them. Simply removing the sponsor, like KFC, doesn't really impact on things that much. Obesity is becoming a problem granted, but you need to educate people, educate parents, things like that - simply taking ads off tv, and sponsors away from sports I don't think will make that much of a difference - the outlets are still going to be there, and if the kids want to go, or the parents want to take them, a logo on a sportsmans shirt isnt going to be the deciding factor.

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stephen:

06 Oct 2008 1:05:59pm

Perhaps the obesity experts should be telling the parents off rather than KFC.

Whatever happened to personal responsibility?

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Lament:

06 Oct 2008 1:15:27pm

If KFC are willing to sponsor sport then that sounds to me like a reasonable balance.

KFC is not a bad food, taken moderately, cricket is not a bad sport... taken moderately!

Fair's fair, nothing wrong with a sensible diet including KFC, nothing wrong either with a game of cricket!

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