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

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