Day 065 - 09 Dec 94 - Page 40

     
     1        reasons why diet and health are important in childhood, and
     2        also looking at the nature and extent of advertising to
     3        children which raises concerns in relation to their overall
     4        nutritional status.
     5
     6   Q.   I do not mean to be impolite.  Sometimes I cannot hear what
     7        you say and, therefore, I have to look at the screen to
     8        pick it up.
     9        A.  I will try to keep my voice up.
    10
    11   Q.   Can you bellow at me, then everybody will hear what you
    12        have to say.  I think I detected in that last answer a
    13        concession, if I can call it that, that the extent to which
    14        children understand the advertising, what it is and what it
    15        is intended to achieve may, in fact, be an important
    16        question when one is thinking about matters of public
    17        policy and so on and so forth; is that right?
    18        A.  It is not a concession -- I mean, yes, it is.
    19
    20   Q.   An agreement then ---
         A.  Yes.
    22
    23   Q.   -- if you like.  It follows, does it not, that academic
    24        work which investigates and (if it can) demonstrates the
    25        extent and nature of the children's understanding of
    26        advertising, is an extremely valuable element in deciding
    27        what one should not do as a matter of public policy?
    28        A.  It is, yes.  I am not in any way seeking to say that
    29        this is an area that is not a valuable research area.  That
    30        is not my intention at all.  Indeed, it is relevant to the
    31        public policy in terms of whether it is deemed acceptable
    32        to advertise to young children regardless of whatever it is
    33        that the product may be being advertised to them.  We, in
    34        this country, take a position (it has been taken) that it
    35        is acceptable to do that.  Some other countries maybe take
    36        a different position on that.
    37
    38   Q.   I understand that, Ms. Dibb.  The fact is that for any area
    39        of scientific or, if it is not scientific, specialist human
    40        activity, the activities of academics are an essential
         element in our understanding of what we ought or ought not
    42        to do; is that not right?
    43        A.  Certainly academic research can add to understanding,
    44        yes.
    45
    46   Q.   In some disciplines it is the only satisfactory route to a
    47        proper understanding as opposed to an assumed hypothetical
    48        or prejudiced understanding of what it is right or not
    49        right to do; that is right, is it not?
    50        A.  When you mean "academic research" how would you define 
    51        that? 
    52 
    53   Q.   People who study a subject who make experiments, who carry
    54        out research, compile data, and who sometimes (but not
    55        always) find themselves enabled to draw conclusions on the
    56        basis of that work which may have a wider impact upon
    57        society at large?
    58        A.  We are talking about research.  You were not meaning
    59        research necessarily within academic institutions?
    60