Day 054 - 24 Nov 94 - Page 17
1 perhaps, feel that they are missing out if they do not have
2 them or, perhaps, they are not allowed to have them.
3
4 Q. What about in terms of brands being socially acceptable?
5 A. Yes, part of this is that certain brands -- children
6 want to be seen with the right brands. Certain brands have
7 more cache, for example, than supermarket own label
8 products. This has been documented in, for example, the
9 case of trainers where parents have felt pressurised into
10 purchasing the right trainers for their children because
11 the children have told them they do not feel they can go to
12 school unless they have the right shoes on; somehow they
13 will feel they are socially ostracized. I think this
14 spreads right across the spectrum of products that children
15 may want, including that of fast-food restaurants like
16 McDonald's.
17
18 Q. Would advertisements play a part in children's feelings
19 about which particular brands were acceptable or were "in"?
20 A. Certainly. Those advertisements which are popular are
21 likely to make children, or anyone for that matter,
22 consider that those products have a certain cache to them.
23 I think an extension of this is the way that the
24 advertisements seek to make the McDonald's experience part
25 of the normal everyday life of a child. The phrases like
26 "There is nothing quite like a McDonald's", "A visit to
27 McDonald's makes your day", these again are phrases which
28 are likely to make a child feel that they certainly -- that
29 McDonald's is a place where they would like to go and where
30 other children go, and that it is certainly a very normal
31 part of life.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Are you saying there is anything particularly
34 wrong with these methods? I mean, I appreciate your point
35 about advertising to children at all or advertising to
36 children for foods which, you would say, contribute to a
37 poor rather than a healthy diet, I take that point. But
38 are you saying there is something extra wrong with the way
39 they make themselves attractive to children in order to
40 sell their food?
41 A. I think, as you have pointed out, there are two issues
42 here. There is the issue of if a food is deemed to be
43 "unhealthy", then to what extent should that product be
44 promoted to a child? I think there is also another issue
45 which is, to what extent should children be exposed to
46 commercial messages?
47
48 Q. I understand both those; what I am asking is there a third
49 question which you are posing about -- suppose the answer
50 to those questions were: "It is all right to advertise
51 this, it is all right to advertise to children, it is all
52 right to advertise this kind of food", I know you do not
53 accept that, but suppose the answer to both those questions
54 were "yes"; would you still be saying: "But the way you
55 have done it is wrong for some reason"? Obviously, the
56 purpose of the advertisement is to appeal to children in
57 the various ways that you can appeal to children.
58 A. I think society has to decide what it considers to be
59 acceptable.
60
