Wow, that's a pretty specific list for advertising bans and exemptions!

Some of the things I find odd and sometimes contradictory about it:

- Including fruit juice in the soft drinks ban - I'm assuming that means even unsweetened fruit juice?

- Exempting flavored nuts and dried fruit - flavored nuts can be candy coated, and dried fruit is often sweetened (as if the drying process itself doesn't concentrate the sugar content enough)

- Including Muesli and porridge oats in the cereal ban- are those sweetened in the UK? My understanding about muesli is that it's just unsweetened and uncooked granola. (and even if it is sweetened in the UK, it seems to contradict the exemptions for flavored nuts and dried fruit)

- Including popcorn in the confectionery ban - even if it's not flavored, salted, or sweetened in any way? Because without those elements, popcorn is normally considered to be a "heart-healthy-whole-grain"

- Including chewing gum in the confectionery ban is not something I would have expected. There's no nutritional value, and it's largely sweetened artificial flavorings, but whether it's artificially sweetened or sugar sweetened, unless you're going through multiple packs of it each day, you aren't going to get much sugar (or artificial sweetener) from it.

- Icing is exempted from the cakes and cupcakes ban. So it's ok to advertise canned icing? (this sounds preposterous, considering that it's still sugar and fat - and if someone wants a sugary-fat snack enough, they'll eat it right out of the container)

- Protein bars included in biscuits and bars ban - granted they're usually sugary bars that have enough protein added to give them some kind of healthy aura, but it's one of those things where you could certainly do worse.

- Desserts and puddings category exempts tinned fruit (in syrup?), and syrups (they mean sugary syrups, right? How would that make sense?)

- Probiotic Yogurt ads banned - aren't all real yogurts pro-biotic?

- Plain pizza bases are ok, and apparently french bread pizzas are ok (or am I misreading that as only referring to plain french bread?), but all other pizzas are not ok. What do they think someone is going to do with the plain pizza base that is radically different from a pizza with toppings?

- A blanket ban on Ready to eat meals - even if they're made to suit their healthy standards? Or is the assumption that it's impossible to make any at all that are acceptably "healthy", so ban all of them?



Also, if the numbers in the UK of people streaming programming is even close to what it's like in the US, these bans will actually affect relatively few people?