Day 300 - 14 Nov 96 - Page 02
1 Thursday, 14th November 1996
2
3 MS. STEEL: I wanted to go through some of the evidence of
4 Miss Dibb, which was heard November 1994. She had worked
5 in the area of food and food policy for the past ten years,
6 and in the past five years the emphasis in that area had
7 been on children and food advertising.
8
9 She was the National Food Alliance project officer for
10 their working party on food advertising, which included
11 carrying out negotiations and submissions to the
12 advertising regulatory bodies. She had also been involved
13 in consultations with the Nutrition Task Force, the body
14 set up to implement the government's Health of the Nation
15 white paper.
16
17 She was the author of the report published by the National
18 Food Alliance in July 1993, entitled 'Children,
19 Advertiser's Dream, Nutrition Nightmare', which looked at
20 children's diets and the influences on children's diets,
21 including advertising. So it is quite clear from all that
22 that she did have a great deal of experience and expertise
23 on the subject of advertising to children and the influence
24 that it has on their diet.
25
26 Miss Dibb referred to two surveys which had been carried
27 out for the Food Commission, which had monitored a week of
28 advertising on children's television on Mondays to Fridays,
29 four to five, gone five o'clock, and from eight o'clock to
30 one o'clock on Saturdays, which, in February 1990, had
31 found that food and soft drinks accounted for 53 percent of
32 the adverts, and in approximately 10 hours of viewing there
33 were 92 advertisements for food and drink and that 78
34 percent of all the food and drink advertisements were for
35 products which were high in sugars or fats, or both. There
36 were no advertisements at all for more healthy foods such
37 as fruit and vegetables. And also McDonald's food was the
38 fifth most advertised food during that period.
39
40 All that is from her statement, from the Food Magazine of
41 April to June 1990, which she confirmed, and on day 54,
42 page 6, line 59 of the transcript onwards for the next
43 couple of pages.
44
45 The second survey in May 1992 had found that food and soft
46 drinks accounted for 47 percent of adverts in the survey,
47 and that foods high in sugars and/or fats made up
48 approximately four-fifths of the food advertised. There
49 were no advertisements for unsweetened cereals or fruit and
50 vegetables. During that period McDonald's was joint second
51 in terms of the most heavily advertised food product.
52 Again, that is from her statement, the Food Magazine of
53 August to October 1992, which she confirmed, and from the
54 transcript, day 54, page 8, line 58 onwards.
55
56 She also referred to a third survey in June 1994, which
57 showed much the same results, with McDonald's coming joint
58 second again in the top 10 advertisers. And the reference
59 for that is the Food Magazine in October 1984, which she
60 confirmed, and day 54, page 11, line 50 of the transcript.