Day 300 - 14 Nov 96 - Page 08
1 to adults, but that does not necessarily -- or there is no
2 reason why that should make any difference, because
3 I thought part of your point is that adults may be in a
4 better position to keep it in its proper place.
5
6 MS. STEEL: Yes, but just in terms of it influencing adults'
7 food choices as well, I think that that is part of the
8 reason why people sort of say, oh, well -- or you might
9 say, 'Why do all these people go to McDonald's?', and it is
10 partly because it has become a familiar place because of
11 the constant bombardment with advertisements. Obviously,
12 you feel more comfortable going to see something, or going
13 to somewhere that you have got some knowledge about or some
14 previous experience, even if it is experience through
15 advertisements.
16
17 She referred to the fact that in other countries there were
18 restrictions on advertisements to children. For example,
19 in Holland, confectionery ads were not allowed to be shown
20 before eight o'clock and in Sweden and Canada no
21 advertising was allowed to children during children's
22 programmes, and that until 1992 children could not be used
23 in food advertisements in France. That was on day 54,
24 pages 53 to 55, and it was taken as well from page 29 of
25 the Advertiser's Dream Book. She said that the ban in
26 France was no longer allowed due to an EC directive.
27
28 The point of referring to all these restrictions in other
29 countries is to show that it is not an unreasonable view to
30 hold, that children should not be subjected to these types
31 of advertisements, or even that they should not be
32 subjected to any advertisements at all, because they are
33 young, impressionable and their emotions and minds are more
34 easily manipulated than adults, and they should therefore
35 have protection from companies who are basically just using
36 them to make their profits.
37
38 There are going to be.... Well, there are different
39 standards held by different people around the world about
40 what is acceptable in terms of advertising to children,
41 advertising specific unhealthy food products to children,
42 advertising gimmicks or collectible toys to children, when
43 you are in reality trying to sell food. You know, people
44 are going to have different views on what should be allowed
45 and what should not.
46
47 Really, I don't think it is for you to decide whose
48 standard is right, necessarily, but rather are the
49 standards... Well, the standard that we believe there
50 should be, which is that there should not be any
51 advertising to children at all because of their
52 vulnerability, is that a standard which a reasonable person
53 could hold.
54
55 I mean, we can argue this anyway, obviously it is a
56 standard which a reasonable person can hold, but clearly if
57 -----
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, I do not think that is the point at
60 all. I have got to keep reminding myself in this case that
