Day 299 - 13 Nov 96 - Page 37
1 of the Plaintiffs' argument that they are completely
2 ethical and aboveboard in their advertising to children, is
3 that they have this wonderful code of, you know, how they
4 should present advertising to children. It is clear that
5 basically the code is just, it is a piece of paper, and,
6 you know, they do not take any notice of it.
7
8 I think there were either two or three advertisements where
9 children were on their own in a store. Mr. Hawkes actually
10 admitted on day 42, page 31, that the advert we just looked
11 at, which I can't remember -----
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There was one of a girl coming up to the
14 counter, and there was the other one of the little child
15 sitting at a table which he or another witness said was
16 clearly a sort of dreamland representation. But anyway,
17 you have said why. I do not want to get bogged down in the
18 detail about that.
19
20 It may be that I am really only interested in codes in two
21 respects. The first is whether it is relevant to any of
22 the issues I have to decide if McDonald's do, generally
23 speaking, observe national codes as to advertising. I may
24 decide it is not. I may decide those who are responsible
25 for the codes have not got it right. But ----
26
27 MS. STEEL: I mean, I have not got anything more to say on
28 this, apart from the fact that on day 42, page 31, line 27,
29 Mr. Hawkes accepted that that particular ad that he was
30 referring to at that time was against the company's
31 guidelines. And I do not think that there is anything
32 special about the codes, the McDonald's Golden Arches
33 code. The only reason I have brought it up is in case
34 Mr. Rampton is going to rely on it to say how great and how
35 ethical they are.
36
37 On the page about ronald mcdonald, this is bundle page 55,
38 "Who is ronald mcdonald?" "ronald mcdonald is a clown,
39 the fact that he is a corporate spokesman should not over
40 shadow his clownness. He is all the good things that come
41 to mind when thinking of clowns; he is full of fun and
42 friendship. Sometimes zany, sometimes daring, always
43 amusing. Ronald is at home anywhere he goes, as well as
44 other characters look up to him, respect him and like him a
45 lot. Ronald is always clown-like but also intelligent and
46 sensitive, and so on. Additionally, Ronald can do nearly
47 anything, even including incredible feats of magic. The
48 antics of the other characters serve to compliment Ronald's
49 humour, they do not upstage him. Ronald is real, he lives
50 in McDonaldland and the real world. Ronald is a star."
51
52 This is obviously a carefully designed character designed
53 to appeal to children to encourage them to see him as a
54 friend and therefore to see McDonald's as a friend, and his
55 use in both advertisements and in in-store performances is
56 really just -- well, it is basically playing on children's
57 emotions. Obviously, they would like to be friends with
58 him and, you know, they like clowns because they are a bit
59 fun, they want to have fun, and thereby the company gets
60 children to come into the stores and buy more of its
