Day 300 - 14 Nov 96 - Page 18
1 Obviously, her concerns about that were that the products
2 sold by McDonald's were unhealthy so it was not a good idea
3 for them to be given apparent endorsement by respected
4 figures.
5
6 She also talked about sponsorship, and said that
7 sponsorship tends to be seen in a more positive light than
8 advertising, that sponsorship was increasing and was
9 particularly popular with the manufacturers of products or
10 services who think that by being associated with a
11 particular organisation or project that will enable their
12 company to be seen in a good light, and that by being seen
13 in a good light it would deflect criticisms that may be
14 raised about that company, or it might mitigate against the
15 criticisms. Also that, at the same time, the sponsorship
16 was part of their promotional activity and the goodwill
17 that might be generated as a result of it would be good for
18 their business. That was day 54, page 57, from line 51
19 onwards.
20
21 In actual fact I did not get time to read any of the other
22 evidence of Miss Dibb. It is my recollection that it was
23 broadly similar for the rest of the time anyway.
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
26
27 MS. STEEL: There were some bits in bundle 7 which I did not
28 mention yesterday, which I would just like to remind you.
29 There is not a massive amount, but I might as well do it
30 and get it out of the way. These are related to, I am
31 afraid, various different points. This is in tab 18, the
32 1989 OPNAD Annual Report. On page 390 it says that
33 "McDonald's continued to strengthen its number one
34 position amongst kids".
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can you just pause, I am having trouble with
37 the bundle. (Pause).
38
39 MS. STEEL: That, in addition to the ronald mcdonald theme and
40 'tween' advertising, OPNAD supported its kids business
41 with the successful McNugget Buddies, Disney Racers, food
42 changeables, Garfield, Lego, and Rescue Ranger promotional
43 Happy Meals. McDonald's kept kids attention throughout the
44 year with the Little Gardener, Halloween and Little Mermaid
45 continuity Happy Meal.
46
47 So McDonald's is saying here that despite the fact that
48 they are already in number one position amongst kids,
49 because of their massive use of advertising to bombard the
50 children, they are not even satisfied with that and they
51 are going to continue to strengthen that position. That
52 they deliberately kept kids' attention throughout the year
53 by the use of Happy Meals and, obviously, many of those
54 happy meal promotional toys that are referred to -- Disney
55 Racers, Garfield, Lego and Rescue Rangers and Little
56 Mermaid -- are going to be very popular toys. So it is all
57 about using popular toys to draw children in to the
58 restaurants to get them or their parents to buy the food
59 and increase McDonald's profits, which we would say is
60 obviously exploitation.
