Day 047 - 07 Nov 94 - Page 42
1 drinks to children from people who see that advertising
2 frequently. If they believed that what is allowed on the
3 screen is wrong, they would write and say so, or they would
4 telephone and say so. They do not, except to a very small
5 extent. Therefore, our judgment is that the current state
6 of affairs is considered acceptable by the vast majority of
7 parents. Hence my view that these comments in response to
8 question 1 are related to the way they have interpreted
9 those words.
10
11 Q. Why do you assume that because there are not a large number
12 of complaints about this, that that means that people are
13 happy about it, because is it not -- well, just go back a
14 bit. I think you said that -- well, how many complaints
15 does the ITC get in a year?
16 A. Several thousand. I cannot tell how many thousands.
17
18 Q. How many are judged to be substantiated?
19 A. Let us say one or two percent of those. I do not know
20 what the figure is.
21
22 Q. So it is possible that people have complained previously or
23 they just think that there may be just very little point in
24 complaining?
25 A. It is possible, but I do not agree with it. The ITC is
26 careful to ensure that any complaint that has some
27 substance is taken seriously. There may be only one
28 complaint. They will take it just as seriously as if there
29 were 50 complaints about the same commercial. They do not
30 just go on numbers. The fact is that the number of
31 complaints is very, very small.
32
33 Q. But that would only be if it transgressed their guidelines?
34 A. Yes.
35
36 Q. That it would be taken seriously?
37 A. Yes.
38
39 Q. So if people----
40 A. No -- forgive me. They would all be taken seriously,
41 but only if they offended against the rules would they be
42 upheld.
43
44 Q. So, again, people may think it is not worth bothering to
45 complain?
46 A. I agree----
47
48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Are not questions 2, 3, and 4 much more in
49 point? Yes. I know you will come to them. But I wonder
50 whether it is really worth spending a lot of time on
51 question 1. I do not even know whether any of the persons
52 knew what the restrictions actually were.
53
54 THE WITNESS: Indeed.
55
56 MS. STEEL: Well, the questions I have been asking, I wanted to
57 ask at another point, anyway.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am merely suggesting that it might be more
60 productive in relation to 2, 3, and 4, because they are in
