Day 300 - 14 Nov 96 - Page 34
1
2 MS. STEEL: I think it is. I mean, it is not a word that we
3 chose. It was a word that was brought in because Miss Dibb
4 had attended a seminar organised by the advertising
5 industry that was entitled "pester power, how to reach
6 children in 1994". It is not a term invented by critics of
7 the fast food industry.
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: For better or worse, and there is no use
10 getting excited about it at this stage, McDonald's do not
11 accept that they are part of the pestering.
12
13 MR. MORRIS: Mr. Rampton does not, but his witnesses do.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You are going to finish on advertising by
16 quarter past four this afternoon, so you had better get on
17 with it.
18
19 MS. STEEL: Anyway, I think I was just in the middle of reading
20 out a quote from Mr. Miles, that the end result of this did
21 create a degree of conflict of interests in families that
22 -- sorry, it did create a degree of conflict, although he
23 did not think it was a problem. But that is his opinion.
24 He is accepting the fact that it does create a degree of
25 conflict.
26
27 Sue Dibb, I forgot, I did not do this because this was a
28 different day, this was day 55, she referred to, I don't
29 know if this is the same Mori survey, but she said on
30 page 39 of day 55 that the survey revealed that
31 three-quarters of parents do not believe that current
32 patterns of food advertising encourage children to eat a
33 healthy balanced diet and that nearly two-thirds would like
34 to see tougher restrictions on the advertising of food and
35 soft drinks to children, 46 percent of parents of children
36 aged five and over admitted that they gave in to buying
37 advertising foods that would not otherwise buy as a result
38 of that pester power. I think the figure is different
39 because it is a more restricted age group. And that half
40 of the parents of the children over five said they think
41 that food advertising encourages their children to spend
42 their pocket money on unsuitable foods. That was on
43 page 40.
44
45 You may remember that we made a pleading which was based
46 upon an article which appeared in the New American in
47 December 1985 which was an interview with Paul Preston, the
48 president of McDonald's UK. This article, Mr. Preston was
49 asked about it in examination-in-chief. The article said
50 that -- it quoted Mr. Preston as saying: Most of our
51 television commercials went out in the afternoon when the
52 kids were watching. It was pressure from the kids which
53 brought their parents into our restaurants.
54
55 The only part that Mr. Rampton put to him was it has been
56 suggested that you admitted that the majority of McDonald's
57 television advertisements went out in the afternoon; is
58 that true or false. Mr. Preston said: I do not think
59 I ever said that; in fact, it has never been the case, I do
60 not know why I would say something like that, it has never
