Day 055 - 25 Nov 94 - Page 08
1 Q. You interpret that as advertisements in general?
2 A. Would concern itself, yes.
3
4 Q. Or in total?
5 A. Yes.
6
7 Q. So what about the letter and spirit of 11(b)?
8 A. This is in relation to concerns about dental health.
9 I have concerns about the way it is currently worded. The
10 emphasis on "near bed-time" is only one occasion on which
11 it is inadvisable to eat foods containing non-milk
12 extrinsic sugars. The recommendations on eating these
13 kinds of foods are that they should not be eaten frequently
14 throughout the day, and they should be eaten in limited
15 quantities.
16
17 So, I think that rule does not fully cover nutritional
18 concerns about sugar.
19
20 Q. In the letter?
21 A. In the letter.
22
23 Q. What would you say about the spirit of 11(b)?
24 A. I think the spirit of 11(b) is OK, as far as it goes,
25 yet I am aware that the interpretation of it has been a
26 subject of controversy in relation to one particular
27 advertisement, where the child in the advertisement was
28 wearing pyjamas. There were complaints about this
29 advertisement, as the child was wearing pyjamas, that it
30 was likely to be interpreted that the child was going to be
31 going to bed.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is there any other concern there, apart from
34 dental caries?
35 A. In the way that it is currently worded, the concern is
36 for dental health.
37
38 Q. Yes. I mean it says "especially sweet, sticky foods"?
39 A. The wording is inadequate, in the sense that "sweet
40 sticky foods" is not a very clear definition.
41
42 Q. No, but you must not encourage children to consume any food
43 or drink. So I suppose a mug of hot chocolate would be out
44 of order?
45 A. Yes. The new proposals are a great improvement on this
46 particular point. I do not know whether to refer to that
47 at the moment, but I wanted to make the point about the
48 interpretation even of this rule that, in itself, is
49 inadequate, which is likely to be amended.
50
51 But the interpretation that was placed on a particular
52 advertisement that had a child wearing pyjamas, the
53 advertisers defended it, saying that, in fact, it was in
54 the morning, that the child had got up. The fact that was
55 accepted, this was accepted by the ITC, I feel, shows that
56 the ITC were not truly implementing even this rule to the
57 letter, and certainly not in the spirit which it was
58 intended.
59
60 MR. MORRIS: Just to go back to the point about food or drink,
