Day 065 - 09 Dec 94 - Page 46
1 that, Mr. Rampton, can you tell me where in the article we
2 find, or you would suggest that we find, that Zuckerman's
3 and Gianinno's study found that even by the age of ten only
4 15 per cent of children knew that commercials intend to
5 sell products, because, I have to say, when I read that in
6 your publication it surprised me that by the ten only one
7 in six or seven do that?
8 A. Well, I think we are talking about -----
9
10 Q. But if they found that, bring it to my attention.
11 A. I think we are talking about different things here.
12 The ability to differentiate between an advertisement and a
13 commercial is not necessarily the same as the ability to
14 know that a commercial is intended to sell products.
15
16 Q. I appreciate that. I am purely focusing in on what you
17 say, "While Zuckerman and Gianinno's study of four to ten
18 year-olds found that, even by the age of ten, only 15 per
19 cent of the children knew that commercials intend to sell
20 products" ----
21
22 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, to be fair to the witness, and this is
23 what I was going to put, one finds that in table 1.
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Thank you.
26
27 MR. RAMPTON: The last question: "Frequency of children's
28 responses to the question: 'What is a commercial'"; last
29 question was, apparently, "intent to sell, e.g. they show
30 you things you can buy", and only three of the 10
31 year-olds, that is to say, 15 per cent, I think, got the
32 right answer.
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It just shows how you must not substitute
35 your own experience, because I am totally stunned by that:
36 only one in six or seven ten year-olds should be able to
37 appreciate that, when the commercial is on, it is showing
38 you a thing you can buy.
39
40 MR. RAMPTON: But your Lordship's ordinary experience of life,
41 which is, I am afraid, 12th/13ths of your Lordship's
42 obligation, in this case, to use -- shows, if one looks at
43 table 2, to be entirely right. This is one of the things
44 that I was going to suggest that Ms. Dibb had left out of
45 this paragraph in her article, because if you look at --
46 these are verbal questions -- responses to the question:
47 "What is the difference between programmes and
48 commercials?"; in answer to the question, "Function, what
49 each does, e.g. in a commercial they show you something",
50 one gets the answer, "75 per cent of the ten year-olds";
51 and under the cross, against the heading, "Economic sales
52 aspects of commercials - commercials try to get you to buy
53 something", the figure was 20 per cent and not 15.
54 A. If I could add a point to that?
55
56 Q. Please do.
57 A. I think what they are saying "in a commercial they show
58 you something" that this is an understanding that children
59 think that primarily this is about providing information,
60 and I refer back to Dr. Brian Young's paper that I know we
