A Government proposal for a total ban on advertising aimed at children would fail to end the cycle of "compulsive consumerism" in which parents are trapped, the Government's adviser on young people has warned.
A prohibition on advertising targeted at under-16s was one of the proposals mooted in a leaked document drawn up by a Downing Street aide, containing policies designed to woo women voters.
A ban on the £100m industry targeting British children through television, radio, billboards and online advertising would put commercial children's channels out of business and hit food, electronics and entertainment giants.
But Reg Bailey, chief executive of the Mothers' Union, who published a report for the Government into the commercialisation and sexualisation of young children, said insidious marketing via the internet would make an advertising ban ineffective.
The Downing Street leak coincided with the publication of a Unicef report warning that materialism had come to dominate family life in the UK as parents "pointlessly" amass goods for their children to compensate for long working hours.
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