§ 25. Mr. Gwilym Robertsasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will contribute to reducing prices by seeking to prohibit the television and newspaper advertising of commodities such as soap, washing powder, petrol, tea, bread, butter and margarine which people will buy whether they are advertised or not.
§ Mr. JayI hope that manufacturers and distributors of these and other goods will seek to reduce prices to the consumer by avoiding disproportionate expenditure on sales promotion. But I do not think that a prohibition of particular promotion methods would be justified.
§ Mr. RobertsIs my right hon. Friend aware that the most important condition to make a prices and incomes policy work is to create the right atmosphere and that an important contribution to this atmosphere would be an attack on excessive advertising of this type, for which the public are paying?
§ Mr. JayI certainly agree that firms, in addition to the manufacturers of detergents, might well examine the possibility of reducing advertising expenditure and thereby charging lower prices to consumers.
§ Mr. LubbockIs the President of the Board of Trade aware that the housewife will be extremely disappointed by the reaction of the detergent manufacturers to the Report of the Monopolies Commission and that if they do not pay attention to the findings of the Monopolies Commission, there will be a widespread demand for Government action?