Day 001 - 28 Jun 94 - Page 40


     
     1        advertising constituted 9 per cent of the budget, locally
              11 per cent.  1990, the national figures was 9 per cent,
     2        the local figure was 10 per cent; 1991, the national
              figure was 11 per cent and the local figure was 9 per
     3        cent.
 
     4        My Lord, if one compares those percentages, as I suggested
              earlier on this morning, perhaps with some advantage to
     5        what is asserted in the leaflet, namely, that nearly all
              the plaintiffs' advertising is directed at children.
     6
              The second question I ask is this:  Is the quality of the
     7        plaintiffs' advertising to children objectionable?  As
              your Lordship knows, throughout most of the world
     8        advertisements aimed at children, if they are allowed at
              all, are strictly regulated by government or other
     9        independent bodies.
 
    10        The plaintiffs strive to ensure that they observe the
              local regulations in every country where they operate.
    11        Your Lordship finds copies of the relevant television
              guidelines for the UK and the USA at pink bundle 7,
    12        section A within that bundle.
 
    13        My Lord, in addition, in the United States and Europe the
              plaintiffs have put in place their own strict codes which
    14        they call the Golden Arches codes.  Copies of these are in
              that same pink bundle, 7 in section B.
    15
              Third, the plaintiffs have produced compilations on video
    16        tape of their children's television advertising in the
              United Kingdom and the USA which we will show to your
    17        Lordship during the course of the trial.  Your Lordship
              may think, having seen them, that if there is a criticism
    18        to be made of them, it is that they perhaps to an adult
              are sometimes a little banal and sometimes a little
    19        over-sugary, a little soppy.
 
    20        My Lord, Mr. Kenneth Miles, whose reference in the witness
              bundles, the yellow ones, is VI/3, who is the
    21        Director-General and Chief Executive of the Incorporated
              Society of British Advertisers has reviewed the
    22        plaintiffs' UK children's advertising, particularly the
              television commercials, and their codes of practice.
    23
              He expresses himself satisfied that they conform to the
    24        standards laid down by the Independent Television
              Commission and the Advertising Standards Authority and
    25        sees no cause to criticize them at all.  He also observes
              that they do not display any tendency to generate what is 
    26        called "pester power", that is to suggest to children that 
              they nag their parents to take them to McDonald's.  He 
    27        also feels that they have no tendency to "trap children
              into thinking that they aren't normal" if they don't go to
    28        McDonald's.
 
    29        My Lord, perhaps really the most important question in
              relation to advertising, particularly advertising to
    30        children, your Lordship may think may be this:  Even if it
              were the case that the plaintiffs' advertisements were

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