The United Kingdom’s landmark restrictions on junk food advertising, introduced this week to reduce children’s exposure to marketing for high-fat, sugar and salt products, have an unexpected loophole that may undermine their effectiveness.

Under rules now in force, advertisements for ‘less healthy’ food and drink products are banned on television before the 9 pm watershed and completely prohibited online at all times.

However, companies are still permitted to broadcast brand-only campaigns that do not feature identifiable products, enabling well-known junk food makers to maintain visibility with young audiences and blunt the intended impact of the policy.

Critics within public health advocacy have pointed to this exception as a significant gap in what is otherwise a world-leading set of restrictions aimed at tackling rising rates of childhood obesity across the UK. 

The loophole allows firms such as multinational manufacturers to air adverts that promote brand awareness without showing the specific banned food items, meaning familiar logos, characters or slogans can still reach children before the watershed.

This concession emerged after industry pressure and a threat of legal action against an initial proposal for a blanket ban, with government negotiators opting to permit non-product brand promotion as a compromise.

Public health campaigners argue that brand advertising can still influence children’s preferences and buying behaviours, undermining the principle of the new law.

The advertising restrictions, delayed until January 2026, represent a central plank of the government’s strategy to curb childhood obesity by reducing exposure to unhealthy food marketing.

The measures are expected to cut billions of calories from children’s diets and are part of a broader preventative healthcare approach.

However, the brand-only exception has drawn concern that the rules may not fully achieve their intended public health benefits unless further tightened or supplemented by additional regulations.