Day 054 - 24 Nov 94 - Page 56
1 Q. Is that during children's programmes? I am actually
2 looking at "Advertiser's Dream".
3 A. Yes, I think that would be fair to say, that it would
4 be during children's programming.
5
6 Q. It has been argued in this court that advertising just
7 influences the choice of particular brands. Is that
8 something that you would agree with or do you have a
9 different view to that?
10 A. It is an argument I have hard quoted, mainly by those
11 involved in advertising industries, as a defence against
12 criticism that advertising can have wider nutritional
13 implications than, I think what I was talking about before,
14 the choice between one chocolate bar or another chocolate
15 bar. I think that argument does not hold water for a
16 number of reasons. It is a very simplistic view of markets
17 and how they operate. The argument really I think is used
18 to refer to what is called a "mature market", that is a
19 market that is well developed and is not a growing market
20 but, of course, many markets are growing markets and many
21 products that are of interest to children have seen great
22 growth over the last 10 years; fast-food would be one of
23 those; soft drinks is another one. These are products
24 which, particularly with regard to children and I think
25 more generally, are not mature markets.
26
27 It is also a flawed argument in that it assumes that people
28 make choices within the same constraints that
29 manufacturer's view their products. A manufacturer views
30 their products in relation to its competitors. So, for
31 example, a fast-food company may be more concerned about
32 its market share in relation to its competitor, and see
33 itself operating in the same market as other fast-food
34 companies; the same with a breakfast cereal manufacturer or
35 chocolate bar manufacturer. They may just be more
36 concerned about sales of, for example, a Mars Bar compared
37 with a Kit-Kat but people do not make food choices in that
38 way.
39
40 For example, when people choose to have a snack, they are
41 not just necessarily making a choice between one chocolate
42 bar or another. They may be making the choice between
43 having an apple or a banana or having a bag of chips from a
44 take-away. So, I think it is misleading to imply that
45 advertising only influences products within -- sorry,
46 influences brand share within a market.
47
48 In addition, I think it is important to consider that even
49 in a so-called mature market, there are likely to be people
50 moving into that market as well as moving out of that
51 market, particularly, if it is an age-related product. In
52 that sense, children are always new consumers. They always
53 provide advertisers with new opportunities from quite a
54 young age. They are always coming into a market. For
55 example, if you are a manufacturer of Smarties, for
56 example, which perhaps could be said to have an age-range
57 among young children, it could be said that the market for
58 Smarties is a mature market -- I do not have information on
59 that, but assuming that it is -- it is not just about
60 advertising to ensure that your customers continue to buy
