Day 002 - 30 Jun 94 - Page 50
1 shared, ecological environment, social justice, workers'
rights, respect for animals and nature -- and also the
2 points on advertising I would like to make on advertising,
which is I have always been -- I do not mind admitting;
3 I suppose "opposed" may be a bit strong -- opposed to
advertising, as it is generally conducted. I think it has
4 a pernicious effect on people at the best of times.
Certainly advertising as it affects children is to be
5 particularly opposed.
6 So again, in our submission, during this trial on the
advertising children subject, it will not be necessary
7 that we have to prove their advertising is worse than
other advertising. The point is that people have a right
8 to criticise advertising. They have a right to criticise
advertising itself, not just the particularly bad
9 examples. That is why we believe that freedom of speech
is a fundamental part of this trial; that they have a
10 right to criticise the incaging and the killing of
animals, not because they do it illegally or worse than
11 anyone else but because they do it, they are responsible
for it.
12
We have a right to criticise low wages not because they
13 are worse than other organisations, but because they are
low wages. It is the same with packaging. If they
14 generate mountains of packaging -- in their own admission,
they use, I think it was, a quarter of their package in
15 1989 contained CFCs or HCFs which damaged the ozone
layer. A quarter of McDonald's packaging is a hell of a
16 lot of packaging worldwide. But just the fact of their
generation of that amount of packaging, is it necessary?
17 People have a right to oppose the unnecessary use of
packaging.
18
Just to say a little bit about -- I have nearly finished
19 we should finish by today -- the so-called anti-McDonald's
campaign. Many different groups in the 80s, if not
20 before, were criticising McDonald's: trade unionists,
environmentalists, vegetarians, people concerned about
21 advertising and children. In America there was a big
campaign by school children to stop McDonald's using
22 styroe foam packaging with its effect on the environment
and being buried in landfills throughout the State which
23 was largely successful.
24 The point about the London Greenpeace campaign against
McDonald's was not it has invented the ideas in the fact
25 sheet and, therefore, it takes full responsibility or
alternative full credit, if you like, for the worldwide
26 belief in the ideas; it is that these ideas are ideas put
forward by trade unionists and green groups and
27 vegetarians and whatever. London Greenpeace really just
brought them together in the mid 80s. So the people that
28 distribute leaflets against McDonald's are not our agents
or servants or the agent of servants of London Greenpeace;
29 they are people who independently choose to distribute
criticisms of McDonald's for whatever reason.
30
I think this is very important because Mr. Rampton has
