Day 293 - 04 Nov 96 - Page 41


     
     1        Scandinavia.
     2
     3        Another example is in document number 41 in the same
     4        bundle.  I do not know whether this was an advert or what,
     5        but it appeared in Readers Digest, and it is like a page
     6        just about McDonald's.  And it is called "Taking
     7        initiatives in city streets and around the world".  It says
     8        in there: "With 340 restaurants in Britain serving an
     9        average 750,000 meals daily, McDonald's is the leader both
    10        in the marketplace and in taking action to protect the
    11        environment."
    12
    13        Lower down on that page, there is a subheading "Sense of
    14        Responsibility", and it says: "Customers at McDonald's this
    15        year have been picking up McFact sheets (printed of course
    16        on recycled paper) giving the facts about the company's
    17        role worldwide and caring for the environment."
    18
    19        That was, I think, produced -- well, it must have been
    20        after 1987.  I am not sure when it was produced, actually.
    21
    22        The document in tab 4, 42, "McDonald's and the
    23        Environment", this is from the McDonald's Corporation in
    24        1991, and towards the bottom of that there is a section
    25        "Recycling", and the first sentence is: "McDonald's is one
    26        of the nation's largest users of recycled paper products."
    27        The other one is in tab 44 in the same bundle.
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.
    30
    31   MS. STEEL:   The third page of that document is, did you know
    32        number 5, McFact card, and it is entitled "recycling the
    33        facts".  The fourth -- well, I mean, it is all about
    34        recycling, but the fourth paragraph says:  McDonald's is
    35        already the largest user of recycled paper in the quick
    36        service restaurant industry.  And it gives some examples of
    37        that.  It talks about the pilot scheme in Nottingham.  So
    38        anyway, they were just examples of McDonald's trying to
    39        create an impression that, you know -- well, just about
    40        their use of recycled paper.
    41
    42        But I think, as a general point on top of that, is I was
    43        certainly conscious of statements to the media and things
    44        like that about their use of recycled paper, which, you
    45        know, obviously we have not got all the press cuttings in
    46        the bundles, but it was just a general impression that was
    47        created by the company.  That is about it.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Thank you.
    50 
    51   MR. MORRIS:   There was an admission under advertising about the 
    52         - I will not read it all out - but it was the Advertising 
    53        Standards Authority in April 1991, upheld a complaint
    54        against a McDonald's advertisement in All Sporting Magazine
    55        (?) headlined Go Green McDonald's and the Environment.  And
    56        then the Authority found the advertisement had wrongly
    57        implied that if McDonald's had ended their practice of
    58        using foam packaging, a paper based alternative would not
    59        be fully recyclable.  Then they found it was misleading for
    60        McDonald's to refer to the recycleability of their

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