Day 299 - 13 Nov 96 - Page 20
1 evidence on this subject and who we had a statement for.
2 Well, I do not think we have got any explanation for that,
3 but I just think it is indicative of the fact that
4 McDonald's seems to be afraid to call any witnesses who
5 they do not have under their control any more, who are no
6 longer employed by the company, basically because they are
7 worried that they might come out with the truth and that
8 that is far more likely, seeing as, you know, they are not
9 going to be in fear of losing their jobs if they say the
10 wrong thing, losing their source of income, which obviously
11 relates to what weight should be given to McDonald's
12 witnesses, bearing in mind that they are all dependent, or
13 were virtually all dependent on the company for their
14 income.
15
16 Mr. Hawkes said that McDonald's spends around 5 percent of
17 turnover year by year on advertising in the UK, although
18 -----
19
20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have not actually got the reference but
21 I have found my note. I think it amounts to the same
22 thing, about the -- I have not got that Mr. Hawkes said
23 that they did not target the eight to 15 year olds as much
24 as the two to eights as they did not pester parents, but
25 I think it is the same point probably, that he said that
26 the point of advertising to the ronald mcdonald age group
27 was to put over that McDonald's was a fun place which they
28 would wish to visit so that when the family proposed to eat
29 out the child will ask to go to McDonald's; McDonald's
30 hoped the child would influence the choice of restaurant
31 which the parent selected within the fast food category.
32
33 And then I think it is this bit that you have in mind; the
34 purpose of advertising to children through Ronald was to
35 get young children who did not come to McDonald's by
36 themselves to talk to their parents to encourage them to
37 bring them into McDonald's.
38
39 MS. STEEL: There are various references actually to pester
40 power.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That may be a composite of them.
43
44 MS. STEEL: I will be coming on to that anyway. But whilst Mr.
45 Hawkes originally said that McDonald's spend around 5
46 percent of turnover on advertising in the UK each year, he
47 did later admit that you should add another 1 percent to
48 that, which was from the local stores.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
51
52 MS. STEEL: There was what I would call a pretty idiotic
53 comparison during examination-in-chief with what percentage
54 of turnover other industries use for advertisements, and
55 Mr. Hawkes had said that he thought that they would be
56 average and maybe slightly below average in terms of the
57 total percentage of money that they spent on advertising.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I will hear anything you want to say about
60 that and anything Mr. Rampton wants to say, but at the
