Sin wears a chocolate glaze

The UK's Department of Health has opted not to impose a pre-9pm ban on public television ads for junk food.

The Guardian calls the news a "major victory" for the ad industry and commercial broadcasters. Ofcom estimates the blockade would have cost the TV ad industry £211m a year.

"It sounds as if the advertising and food industries owe the Department for Culture, Media and Sport a large pat on the back," griped coordinator Richard Watts of the Children's Food Campaign, an organization that lobbied for the junk food ban.

"Our understanding is that the Department of Health supported some very tough restrictions on junk food advertising and marketing, but lost the Whitehall battle to keep them in the obesity strategy."

In lieu of banning junk food ads, the government may devote funding to social awareness advertising about the hazards of obesity.