Day 065 - 09 Dec 94 - Page 37
1
2 Do you notice in the middle of that paragraph, Ms. Dibb, a
3 series of questions?
4 A. Yes.
5
6 Q. About the nature of children's understanding of advertising
7 and the effect that advertising may be thought to have on
8 children?
9 A. Yes.
10
11 Q. Do you agree that to some large extent those questions
12 remain unanswered?
13 A. No, I would not say they all remain unanswered. It is
14 always interesting to look into subjects, but we already
15 have, I believe, a great deal of evidence on some of these
16 questions. It is not to say that there is no evidence on
17 these questions. It is not to say that more evidence will
18 be forthcoming. I think he is right to point out the
19 difference between -- he uses the word "understand"
20 advertising, comprehension of advertising. He points out
21 that it is quite difficult to conduct these studies. The
22 fact that something is difficult to measure does not mean
23 it does not exist.
24
25 Q. It might matter how great the effect was, might it not,
26 particularly if you are going about trying to persuade
27 people to ban certain kinds of advertising at certain times
28 of the day; it might matter, might it not?
29 A. How well one can measure that?
30
31 Q. Yes. It might be very important.
32 A. Well, we have to weigh up a number of other issues
33 here. Sometimes decisions have to be made on the weight of
34 available evidence particularly when it is a matter of
35 public health. We do not always know every last little
36 answer to everything.
37
38 Q. Have I got it ---?
39 A. Sorry, if I can finish? Decisions often need to be
40 taken and particularly when we are talking health and
41 welfare, but perhaps to have to err on the side of caution.
42
43 Q. Yes. I was going to ask you that. Can one then say that
44 your proposals for the banning of certain kinds of
45 advertising, the one I read is only one of a number, at
46 certain times of day to certain groups of people within
47 society, are in the nature of precautionary stop gaps; is
48 that right, is that fair?
49 A. I do not think that it is entirely fair, no. The
50 reason I pointed out, I think you were trying to make the
51 point that we do not know everything about this whole area
52 and, therefore, there is an assumption amongst certain
53 people that if we do not know about everything then we
54 should not really worry about it too much. There is a lot
55 of evidence around. Indeed, much of it has been,
56 I believe, quoted in this court, but decisions, when they
57 are taken, have to take into account a very wide range of
58 decisions that are taken. For example, there are still
59 people who contest the issue of smoking and health, for
60 example.
