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.

Prev Next Index