Day 300 - 14 Nov 96 - Page 13
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. (Pause)
2
3 MS. STEEL: Just on the pester power, it is ----
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is your next one, is it?
6
7 MS. STEEL: I was going to say that it is exploitation of
8 children to use them in order to gain profits from their
9 parents. (Pause)
10
11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. I have got one more matter in mind and
12 that is the getting them to eat, I will just say, poor
13 food.
14
15 MS. STEEL: Yes, junk food. Junk food which is bad for their
16 health and that would include - which I presume would not
17 be remotely challenged - the fact that there is loads of
18 sugar in it which is not good for their teeth, apart from
19 anything else.
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not asking you to elaborate now. I just
22 want to get them down. For myself at the moment, I cannot
23 see anything else which you might say is -----
24
25 MS. STEEL: There is more details, but they really all come
26 under the general heading ----
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I just want the little boxes. Right. Yes.
29
30 MR. MORRIS: Is ronald mcdonald part of the gimmick? I think
31 the use of a character has particularly been identified as
32 exploitation, and some countries have banned the use of
33 characters to market through the products especially
34 because of the emotional -----
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, 'Ronald', I was going to make a note
37 -----
38
39 MR. MORRIS: Particularly the emotional relationship that they
40 are encouraging with the character.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am just looking at what is in the leaflet
43 for the moment. Yes. Is there anything you particularly
44 want to say why you would say the exploitation of children
45 is a comment rather than a statement of fact? I must say
46 I don't find the distinction at all easy in the context of
47 this case.
48
49 MS. STEEL: I think, yes, I mean -----
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It may be obvious, if someone sets out a
52 number of matters in an article which are clearly
53 statements of alleged fact and then comes at the end to
54 say, 'for all these reasons we would say that X is
55 exploiting Y', but I don't find comment at all easy in the
56 context, in the way this leaflet is expressed.
57
58 MS. STEEL: I think, I mean, it is difficult, because our view
59 is that it is a fact that they do exploit children. But we
60 are aware that exploitation is something that different
