Day 025 - 16 Sep 94 - Page 29


     
     1        A.  Yes, that is what I was about to say.  My memory is
     2        that 300 milligrams is at the top end of cholesterol
     3        consumption in a given day.
     4
     5   Q.   His Lordship's point is this, I think.  The cholesterol
     6        content of the regular hamburger, 29 milligrams, is, in
     7        fact, just over 11 per cent of 263, which is the total
     8        calorie content of a regular hamburger.  That is right, is
     9        it not?  It is more than 10 per cent of the content of the
    10        item?
    11        A.  I understand the question; I understand the statement,
    12        rather.
    13
    14   Q.   Would you not agree that, in fact, the cholesterol content
    15        of the regular hamburger, in contrast with your letter,
    16        is, in fact, relatively high?
    17        A.  No, sir.  As I said earlier, it is relative to other
    18        products of a like nature, relative to the other hamburger
    19        products that are contained, whose numbers are contained
    20        within the "Leaner" ad -- that is the next ad in this
    21        particular brochure -- the numbers, the amount of
    22        cholesterol itself is much higher.
    23
    24   Q.   So are you saying this, that if this advertisement were
    25        not to be held to be deceptive, instead of a regular
    26        hamburger they should have chosen to insert in the table,
    27        for example, the quarter pounder with cheese, which has a
    28        cholesterol content of 107 milligrams.  Is that what you
    29        are saying, for example?
    30        A.  Well, I will try to answer that.  I tend not to think
    31        in that manner because I do not write advertisements for
    32        companies.  I do not suggest what more appropriately might
    33        be in the advertisement because that would be a form,
    34        I think, of prior restraint.  Instead, I take the
    35        advertisements as they appear, not as they might appear.
    36        I, therefore, am at a bit of a loss to make that
    37        speculation for you.
    38
    39   Q.   How would you have made the case in court, assuming it had
    40        got there?
    41        A.  My job is to point out how the ad as it appears is
    42        deceptive, not how it might be cured.  I believe I told
    43        you how it might be deceptive.
    44
    45   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What would you point to in the cholesterol
    46        ad, because that is what point (3) relates to, to say to
    47        judge or jury, that cholesterol ad emphasises the
    48        relatively low -- then I see what is in parentheses -- but
    49        "emphasises the relatively low cholesterol content of the
    50        regular hamburger"? 
    51        A.  For that, your Lordship, I would point to, as I said, 
    52        the chart to show where the ad does emphasise it.  Where 
    53        I would show that it was relatively low is in comparison
    54        and relative to, therefore, other like products, other
    55        hamburgers served by McDonald's.  I think those are the
    56        only two points in the question your Lordship just asked
    57        me.
    58
    59   MR. RAMPTON:  I do not know about America generally, but in the
    60        courts of Texas is it your experience that it does not

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