Day 042 - 31 Oct 94 - Page 16
1 A. I do not.
2
3 MS. STEEL: You said yesterday (sic) that advertising is
4 considered to be a key element of free speech in this
5 country. Who considers it to be?
6 A. Well, certainly -- this is me talking -- certainly,
7 when I was at college and we were talking about democracies
8 and what are indications of democracies, then free speech
9 is often seen, or advertising is often seen to be one kind
10 of measure of a country's ability to have free speech.
11
12 Q. Considered by whom, though: by the advertisers, by the
13 companies?
14 A. No, no. By academics; just in general, not in terms
15 of-----
16
17 Q. You are not aware of any surveys on the general public?
18 A. I am not aware of any surveys on the general public,
19 no.
20
21 Q. Does the Advertising Standards Authority agree with that?
22 A. I have no idea.
23
24 MR. MORRIS: Is it not a fact that their job is actually to
25 suppress adverts that are misleading?
26 A. Yes. Their job is to ensure that all advertising is
27 honest, legal and decent.
28
29 MS. STEEL: You mentioned yesterday about ads being
30 "self-regulated". What does that mean?
31 A. It means that the ITC is an independent body whose job
32 it is to lay down the rules and guidelines to advertisers
33 and then apply them.
34
35 Q. How is that self-regulation?
36 A. Because the rules and regulations in there, to my
37 knowledge, are not government imposed. They are
38 procedures, standard procedures, that have been drawn up
39 and, therefore, regulated by this body independently.
40
41 Q. Who are the ITC, then?
42 A. They are the -- I think it is short for the Independent
43 Television Companies, I believe.
44
45 Q. So it is made of up of television companies?
46 A. They set up a panel of different people. I am not sure
47 who makes up the panel, but they are separate from the
48 major advertisers themselves, and they would sit down and
49 vet the commercials through the BACC.
50
51 Q. Do you know how often they take action to prevent
52 advertisements going out?
53 A. I do not know, no.
54
55 Q. Do you know of any instances at all where they stopped
56 advertisements going out?
57 A. What, from other people?
58
59 Q. Either from McDonald's or from other----
60 A. Yes. I am sure they have in their history. I cannot
