Lidl, a German discount retail chain, will remove cartoon characters from its line of cereals in the UK by Spring to help parents fight 'pester power' and childhood obesity.
Nearly half of parents believe that cartoon characters on packaging encourage children to ask their parents to buy certain items.
'We know pester power can cause difficult battles on the shop floor and we’re hoping that removing cartoon characters from cereal packaging will alleviate some of the pressure parents are under', said Georgina Hall, Lidl’s head of corporate social responsibility.
Lidl was the first supermarket in Britain to remove sweets and chocolates from their checkout area in 2014. Their cereals still have unhealthy-sounding names (e.g. Choco Rice), but the company has reduced the sugar content by 20% in the last years.
The UK has a ban on advertising products which contain high amonts of fat, salt and sugar to children, and licensed characters (e.g. Peppa Pig or Paw Patrol) are not allowed to endorse such products.