Day 300 - 14 Nov 96 - Page 30
1 surprised about the Mori polls, that only 39 percent of
2 parents agreed that they often buy products that their
3 children ask them to. That was advertised food products.
4 He said: "I would have guessed that a higher proportion
5 did". So he clearly thinks that pester power is something
6 that is quite effective, if he thinks that over 39 percent
7 of people would agree that they often buy products their
8 children have asked them to after seeing the products being
9 advertised. He agreed -----
10
11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Does it have to be pester power? I mean,
12 you keep using pester power, but is it pester power if a
13 child, while pouring one kind of cereal into its bowl at
14 breakfast, says, "Mum, the next time you go to Waitrose,
15 Tesco's, Sainsbury's, whatever, can you buy such and such
16 instead". Is that pester power?
17
18 MS. STEEL: It would depend on whether... I mean, I don't
19 know, I think the Plaintiffs are only worried about the
20 term "pester power" because they are ashamed of what they
21 are doing. But, yes, it does matter if, for example, the
22 mother is trying to feed her child a healthy product and
23 she is getting pestered to go and buy some other.
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is the pestering. I see the point
26 entirely about asking mother or father to go and get a food
27 which is not good for the child. That I have no trouble
28 with, whether you call it pestering or just polite
29 once-only request. But are you saying every request is
30 pester or that it is trying to get them to go further, to
31 nag on and on and on?
32
33 MS. STEEL: The point is, you know, McDonald's are trying to
34 portray this picture about it is all between one brand and
35 another. The reality is that it is not. It is about
36 children demanding to be taken to McDonald's when the
37 parents are not even remotely considering going out. You
38 see it in the street all the time.
39
40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am sorry, you are not answering my point.
41 I said I understand that, the undesirability of even a
42 single polite request to be taken to McDonald's rather than
43 having what you would say is a much healthier food
44 elsewhere. I have no trouble with that and I see the point
45 of criticism there, which I will consider.
46
47 It is when pester power is used as if it is suggesting that
48 the result of the advertisement will not be one or two
49 polite requests but a nagging on and on until the parent
50 does it. That is what I am trying to get. Are you
51 suggesting that is the consequence of the advertising? I
52 understand the first criticism.
53
54 MS. STEEL: I think the reality is that it is more often than
55 not children do not just ask once and that they do pester
56 their parents. There may be some occasions when they only
57 ask once, and it may be that, you know, the parents do not
58 get particularly bothered by that. But the reality is that
59 they are, in the main, being subjected to frequent
60 advertisements about all manner of different things.
