Day 065 - 09 Dec 94 - Page 32
1 and cynical reactions to television commercials, and hold
2 generally negative attitudes toward advertising."
3
4 Pause there, Ms. Dibb, do I take it that if there are two
5 models to be found amongst people who are interested in
6 this subject, you would adopt the first rather than the
7 second model?
8 A. No, I am not certain that "models", they may be of use
9 in the academic environment, but I think the real world
10 does not divide up quite so easily. I think we have to go
11 on a bit from that. We have just talked about the way in
12 which children may externalise their hostility and cynical
13 reactions to television commercials, and may adopt
14 adult-like negative attitudes. But we have just seen a
15 research that demonstrated that does not mean they want the
16 products any less. They may express scepticism.
17
18 So, I think we have to -- I personally am not quite certain
19 how helpful these two models are to looking at things
20 because I think it is far more complicated than either of
21 these models suggest.
22
23 Q. Maybe I can put it this way. May we suppose that the first
24 model is what I might call an obvious but, in fact, wholly
25 mistaken view of the susceptibility of children to
26 advertising; that would be important, would it not?
27 A. Young children, we have just been through this, clearly
28 demonstrated they do not have the same ability to
29 understand advertising as older children. In that sense
30 they are going to be far less critical of it. But we have
31 also explored the area of what effect, feeling critical
32 towards something may have.
33
34 In fact, we have also I think, I feel, established that
35 their effects on wanting a product are not related to
36 that. I think what we have to separate out here is one
37 which is a debate which has been of great interest to
38 academic researchers, which is about what children know,
39 what they can understand, what they might learn as they get
40 older.
41
42 I was talking about this the other day with Frank Willis of
43 ITC, and we were agreeing that it is important to separate
44 out that which is, Mr. Willis felt, largely academic
45 interest from the effect that advertising has. The two are
46 not necessarily related. I think it would be wrong to try
47 and confuse the two. After all, as the ITC were certainly
48 in the situation of acknowledging that young children do
49 not have the same critical faculties, but, in a sense, you
50 can argue for ever and a day at what point children may
51 acquire certain ---
52
53 Q. Yes, indeed.
54 A. -- certain faculties. But that is not the point. The
55 point is that, regardless of what critical faculties you
56 may have acquired, at what particular age that the
57 influence of advertising is going to act is going to be an
58 influence.
59
60 Q. Sorry if I sound a little surprised by what you have just
