The small candy shop Mint on Kalbakken in Oslo is full of children and young people. This despite the fact that it is in the middle of the school term. Although the store is local, store manager Amina Sharifi reaches out to tens of thousands daily. And customers flock to the store. – It’s incredibly fun, says Sharif to news. Frightened Today, up to one in five children in Norway is overweight, figures from the Institute of Public Health show. This development frightens Mina Gerhardsen, secretary general of the National Association for Public Health. – We therefore believe there must be a ban on the marketing of unhealthy food aimed at children under 18, also in digital media, she says. SHOCKED: Store manager at the candy store, Mint, Amina Sharifi, is shocked at how important social media is in advertising. Photo: Screen dump / Dagsrevyen Enormous reach On TikTok, Sharifi and the little candy shop have up to 50,000 followers. Here she shows off, tests and talks about the products she has in the store. – If I post a taste test one day, it is often sold out in the store just hours later, she says. Shocked Outside the candy store, news meets Hadia Mirza. She says that she records the videos Sharifi posts daily. – I think that I should only go here once a week in terms of personal finances and such, she says. When asked how the TikTok fame has affected sales, Sharifi replies: – It has been absolutely insane. Shocking and fun. HITS YOUNG PEOPLE: Through posts like this, the store reaches young people all over the country. Photo: Screen dump / Dagsrevyen – One of the biggest threats TikTok is full of advertisements for sweets, soft drinks and, not least, bowls of chocolate. All fronted by influencers with thousands of followers. Gerhardsen believes this can be dangerous. She believes the constant exposure to these products leads to more obesity among children. – Obesity among children is one of the biggest threats we see. We must get rules that regulate packaging, social media and placement in stores. There must be an end to promoting unhealthy products, she says. – Shown that it is possible – Do you also want to stop the advertising of unhealthy products in social media? – We have shown that it is possible both with alcohol and foreign gambling companies. Now the Minister of Health must step in so that we can put a regulation in place that stops this marketing, says Gerhardsen. Health and Care Minister Ingvild Kjerkol shares Gerhardsen’s concern. – The government has initiated work that looks at children’s consumer protection in digital media. The government will also present a new public health report in March. Here, marketing towards children and young people is a natural topic, says Kjerkol to news. CONCERNED: Mina Gerhardsen of the National Association for Public Health believes constant exposure to unhealthy products makes children more obese. Photo: André Bendixen / news Not believing in a ban Back in Kalbakken, even more young people come into Sharifi’s shop. – Do you yourself feel any responsibility for these young people taking in too much sugar and fat? – The parents are responsible for what the children ingest, not me, she says. – What do you think that so many people are so influenced by TikTok that they come here? – If they don’t buy candy here, they buy it somewhere else. Here it is the parents who have to take responsibility, she says. She also does not believe in a ban on the videos she posts. Controversial bowl Recently, a bowl from the very popular influencer Oskar Westerlin has really taken off. The chocolate bun with a print of Westerlin’s face on the packaging is sold out in all stores and is now being sold at Finn, for more than triple the price. – Clear on what the bowl contains. Although the bun hysteria has led to children and young people buying buns in droves, Westerlin’s management denies that he targets children when he creates content on social media. – 83.7 percent of his followers are over 18 years old. These are the ones he creates content for. We are clear about what the bowl is and do not present it as healthy, answers Vilde Kristine Darvik in Max Social to news.
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