Day 065 - 09 Dec 94 - Page 55
1 Q. In the left-hand column?
2 A. Yes.
3
4 Q. "Tony the Tiger rules OK. Our exclusive survey of eight
5 year-olds", I think there were 87 of them, were there not?
6 A. Yes.
7
8 Q. "... shows just how powerful the characters used in adverts
9 can be. These youngsters rated Tony the Tiger from the
10 Frosties advert, and ronald mcdonald, higher than their
11 teacher and even their own fathers. We asked 87 eight
12 year-olds to rate the popularity of people familiar to
13 them, their father, their teacher and their grandparents
14 and three characters from highly advertised foods, Tony the
15 Tiger, ronald mcdonald, Captain Bird's Eye. We asked: Who
16 would you like to take you out for a treat? Top of the
17 poll was Tony, closely followed by Ronald, teacher and
18 fathers came next with grandparents and Captain Bird's Eye
19 least popular" which is a sad circumstance, but there it
20 is.
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: He is a rather rotund, bearded mariner.
23
24 MR. RAMPTON: Oh yes, I know who he is. That explains the
25 nickname of one of my friend's, I think! Can I be serious
26 for the moment, Ms. Dibb: These children were asked the
27 question, as I understand it: "Who would you like to take
28 you out for a treat?" Is that right?
29 A. Yes.
30
31 Q. Were they offered a choice of people to take them out or
32 where they just asked to pluck a name from the air?
33 A. No, they were given the six choices: Tony the Tiger,
34 ronald mcdonald, Captain Bird's Eye, their father, their
35 teacher and their grandparents.
36
37 Q. So to that extent, it was not a spontaneous response, was
38 it?
39 A. No, not at all. In fact, when we referred to this
40 piece of research earlier, I said I did not want to make
41 too much of it in terms of any kind of research finding.
42
43 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You relied on it to show how popular they
44 were, rather than popular than father?
45 A. Yes. It was to indicate the appeal of these
46 characters. I would not wish it to be taken in any greater
47 depth than that.
48
49 MR. RAMPTON: I understand that. The answers you got were
50 entirely predictable, were they not?
51 A. I do not know whether they were entirely predictable.
52
53 Q. I do not know who your girlhood heroes were or the people
54 you liked best out of cartoons or whatever it may have
55 been, but suppose it might have been Donald Duck. You
56 asked a child whether he would rather have a treat with dad
57 whom he sees probably every day of the week and certainly
58 goes out with to a football match at weekends, and that
59 wondrous character from fantasy land Donald Duck, you can
60 predict what the answer is going to be, can you not?
