Day 300 - 14 Nov 96 - Page 31
1 McDonald's are part of that. And it is just a load of
2 hassle which the parents do not want.
3
4 I can actually say that I did not read out the entirety of
5 the quote that was being put to Mr. Miles. This is from
6 parents' response to the question whether or not they would
7 agree with this phrase 'I often end up buying advertised
8 food or drinks which I would not otherwise buy because of
9 my children asking me to'.
10
11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, if you remind me of that, I might ----
12 but was he thinking that it might be more than that or
13 merely that it might be more than 39 percent who often
14 bought products which the children asked for?
15
16 MS. STEEL: Actually, in the first figure it says 35 percent.
17 One of them is obviously wrong in the transcript. I don't
18 know whether it is 35 or 39. But the question was,
19 "I often end up buying advertised food or drinks which
20 I would not otherwise buy because my children asked me to",
21 and 35 or 39 percent of parents agreed with that
22 statement. I mean, there are some other figures there as
23 well. "Having read that, does that concern you?" And the
24 answer is quite long.
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just read it out anyway.
27
28 MS. STEEL: Well, I think that the reference to pester power
29 and, indeed, I think the whole paragraph has been written
30 by the NFA, and not by Mori, so I think I am right in
31 saying that it is interpretation rather than research.
32 Now, the way I respond to question 3 is, which was the one
33 I read out, naturally parents quite often buy products
34 which their children ask them for, especially where food is
35 concerned, because they know if the children have asked for
36 them there is a good chance they will eat them and enjoy
37 them. So I am surprised in fact that only 39 percent agree
38 that they often buy products that their children ask them
39 to. I would have guessed that a higher proportion did.
40
41 He is clearly referring to the question about, you know,
42 agreeing to buy products which they would not otherwise
43 have brought because their children have asked them to.
44
45 MR. MORRIS: Can I just say, it is a bit of a feature of this
46 case that when we have kind of proven something, we feel we
47 have proven something, which the Plaintiffs strenuously
48 oppose and deny, such as the pester power influence, for
49 example, the goalposts get shifted and we are being asked
50 to show it is not just pester power, but it is sort of like
51 relentless pester power or unethical pester power or
52 something. It is always this added -- I am not saying it
53 has been -----
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is not my understanding, because pester
56 means, to me, more than request, and it has not come from
57 the other side, as far as you are concerned; it has come
58 from me. I am not saying it is necessarily a problem in
59 your way.
60
