Day 050 - 10 Nov 94 - Page 18
1 foods that they are prepared to eat. That may be too
2 limited, so they may be eating an unbalanced diet. If they
3 see in -- it does not have been in an advertisement -- in a
4 film, in anything, or in an advertisement, an idea of
5 something they think they would like, that may broaden
6 their range of what they personally approve of and that
7 might be good for them.
8
9 Q. So ----
10 A. That does not always work.
11
12 Q. Are you saying that. Collectively, if that that was true,
13 to go straight to the point, the kind of products that are
14 shown on TV can have an effect in informing children of
15 what the range of products are?
16 A. Yes, I would say that. To pick up point you made
17 before, advertising is a blend of information and
18 persuasion.
19
20 Q. So would you therefore be concerned that the range of
21 products which are advertised as being available to
22 children are, in fact, extremely limited?
23 A. No, I am not concerned about that. Advertising is one
24 of the sources of information which children and adults
25 have, but it is only one. Much more influential, so far as
26 children's diet is concerned, are the decisions of their
27 parents, decisions or brothers and sisters, the preferences
28 of their school friends, their peers, the things they see
29 in shops, the things they see in shop windows. These rate
30 more important in the influence of them, more important
31 than advertising.
32
33 Q. Yes. But you just mentioned an advert which actually
34 increased consumption of milk?
35 A. Yes.
36
37 Q. Just with one advert.
38 A. Well, it was run over a period of weeks.
39
40 Q. If there are 40 adverts, all of equivalent sophistication
41 and encouragement, all promoting basically unhealthy food
42 products such as chocolate ----
43 A. I cannot accept that there is such a thing as an
44 unhealthy food product. If you eat an excess of anything,
45 it may be unhealthy, but not an individual product.
46
47 Q. But if they are promoting products that are being
48 identified that if you eat too much of those kinds of
49 things it is bad for your health -- sweet products, fatty
50 products -- if, instead of that one ad, there are 100 ads
51 every week going to children, promoting a very limited
52 range of products containing unhealthy elements to them,
53 then would that be of concern to you?
54 A. It would if the advertisements were the only source of
55 information the children had. But, as I have indicated,
56 that is far from being the case.
57
58 Q. You have mentioned a single advert that had an effect on
59 improving the health of children who watched it; you said
60 it had a dramatic effect?
