In April 2011, [academic] researchers...published the conclusions of [a] study...about the potential benefits of limiting the influence of marketers in a report titled “Fast-Food Consumption and the Ban on Advertising Targeting Children: The Quebec Experience”:

Amid growing concerns about childhood obesity and the associated health risks, several countries are considering banning fast food advertising targeting children. … Using household expenditure survey data from 1984 to 1992, authors examine whether expenditure on fast food is lower in those groups affected by the ban than in those that are not. … [T]he ban’s effectiveness is [due to] the decrease in purchase propensity by 13% per week. Overall, the authors estimate that the ban reduced fast-food consumption by US$88 million per year. The study suggests that advertising bans can be effective provided media markets do not overlap...

[A June 2012 article stated:]

Quebec’s 32 year ban on advertising to children led to an estimated:

• US$88 million annual reduction in expenditures on fast food.
• 13.4 billion to 18.4 billion fewer fast food calories being consumed per year.

Big Media has barely touched this topic. There has been almost no coverage about, or scrutiny of, the benefits of banning marketing to children, and almost none about this joint study by Canadian and U.S. researchers. Should we conclude that corporate predators have connections with industries that control public information?...

Action is necessary, and the sooner, the better. Parents, researchers, educators, and citizens need to see that the time has come for decision-makers in North America to take side with the health of future generations and prevent the increase of cost for public health.

[refers to Irwin Toys]