Fraser's junk food comments foolhardy:

Fraser's junk food comments foolhardy:

Parents Centre calls for a boycott of junk food advertised on TVNZ

Parents Centre calls on parents throughout New Zealand to follow Television New Zealand Director, Ian Fraser's advice and boycott all companies which advertise on TV1 and TV2.

His offensive comments at the symposium on fast food advertising demand a response.

"If Mr Fraser is gullible enough to believe and promote the idea that advertising fast food to children has no effect on their diet of junk food, and that responsibility for children eating more junk is solely with parents, then we should apply this thinking to our purchasing power and ensure we don't buy products that appear on either TV1 or TV2." said Parents Centre President Sharron Cole.

"His comments make no sense," said Ms Cole. "If advertising to children had no effect on the purchasing of junk food, or other products, then you couldn't give away the advertising slots. Clearly, he is so desperate to avoid any legislation that would affect his ability to generate advertising revenue that he is casting about for someone else to blame and parents are an obvious target.

"Parents should respond to his attack in a way that he understands -through his advertising revenue. If parents boycott all Television New Zealand advertisers until he publicly apologises and retracts his comments, then perhaps he will think twice about bringing such lame duck arguments to a serious debate.

© Scoop Media