Sexualised adverts still targeted at children, says Chartered Institute of Marketing

Businesses are still bombarding children with sexualised and commercial messages despite Government-sponsored efforts to highlight and stop the practice, according to the marketing industry's own professional body.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) warned executives to clean up their act after its survey found nine in 10 parents were dissatisfied by the way that companies targeted children.

Parents were most concerned about sexually explicit outdoor advertising, marketing during children's television programmes and the sale of padded bras, according to the institute's poll of 1,000 parents.

Marketing inside shops and the targeting of children on Facebook were also areas of "significant concern." The CIM commissioned the research a year after the publication of the Government-backed Bailey review into the commercialisation and sexualisation of children.

Last June, Reg Bailey, who led that independent review, said parents were worried by sexually explicit music videos, outdoor adverts containing sexualised images, and the amount of sexual content in family programmes on TV. His review recommended that music videos be age rated and retailers sign a family friendly code of practice.