Day 300 - 14 Nov 96 - Page 27
1 "Yes." Question, "The fact that he does not actually in
2 an advert sell food himself does not detract from his
3 successful use as a strong marketing tool does it?" He
4 said, "No."
5
6 I will not read out any specific parts from this, but on
7 day 45, pages 54 and 55, I think there is a section about
8 Mr. Green talking about increasing the number of customer
9 visits and heavy users, and so on.
10
11 He agreed that they did not just want them to come in more
12 often only if they were going to other places, he just
13 wanted them to come in more often whoever they were, which
14 is probably not surprising.
15
16 Kenneth Miles agreed that the fast food industry was a
17 growing part of the eating out market and that it
18 collectively made up a very substantial portion of food
19 advertising. That was day 47, page 23, line 45. Mr. Miles
20 claimed that advertising was a relatively small influence
21 on people's food choices. That was day 47, page 23, line
22 18. But he did later admit that one particular
23 advertisement for milk had increased milk consumption
24 amongst children quite substantially in the weeks after.
25 That was day 50, page 17, line 45.
26
27 I think a general point about Mr. Miles is that when you
28 are considering his evidence it should be borne in mind
29 that he was the chief executive of the Incorporated
30 Associate of British Advertisers, which is a trade
31 association which exists to promote the interests of its
32 commercial members and which includes McDonald's. So he is
33 hardly unbiased, which does not mean that his evidence is
34 worthless; it just means that that should be taken into
35 consideration, that he is coming from the point of view of
36 that advertising industry who have got their own axe to
37 grind in trying to ensure that they can continue pumping
38 out loads of advertisements and making profits as a
39 consequence. Obviously, any admissions which are made in
40 our favour because of his position would be particularly
41 significant.
42
43 He agreed with the Health of the Nation recommendations
44 that advertising should be developing marketing practices
45 which were more conducive to healthy food choices -- day
46 47, page 21, line 52 -- and that they should be giving the
47 public information which encourages healthy eating. That
48 was the same reference, but line 22. He said that as a
49 result of these recommendations the ITC was now examining
50 their Codes of Practice for TV food ads. I should imagine
51 they have finished that by now seeing as he gave evidence
52 two years ago, but I don't think we have heard what the
53 results were.
54
55 I think that there were two main positions that have been
56 identified by the ITC. The first was that of the
57 advertising and food industry who argued against change
58 because they claimed that there was insufficient evidence
59 that advertising had any significant effect on food
60 choices, on food type choices. And that was the position
