Day 037 - 14 Oct 94 - Page 27


     
     1
     2   MR. MORRIS:  This is from 1985, I believe.  It has not got a
     3        date on it.
     4
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Mine has UK February '85 in one corner.
     6
     7   MR. MORRIS:  You said "a pretty awful document"; you had better
     8        give an indication on what the problems are briefly?
     9        A.  The obvious problem arises directly from what we have
    10        just been discussing, which is saturated fat.  If you look
    11         -- I am afraid I cannot give you a page number -- but if
    12        you look at the page that begins "What you get out of it".
    13
    14   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Our page 59C.
    15        A.  Yes.  You will see there is no measure at all for
    16        saturated fat.  Now -----
    17
    18   MR. RAMPTON:  I do not know if Mr. Morris mentioned the date of
    19        the document; it might be worth mentioning.
    20
    21   MS. STEEL:  We did.
    22
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, it is February '85.
    24
    25   THE WITNESS:  Again, I would characterise this as fundamentally
    26        unethical.  If you are intending to give important
    27        nutritional information, then you have an obligation to do
    28        so, specifically with reference to saturated fat because
    29        it is one of the most important factors in modern diet and
    30        disease.  McDonald's fail to do this.  In my view, this is
    31        a dreadful example of advertising copyrighting gone wrong.
    32
    33   MR. MORRIS:  Is there any other, apart from the saturated fat,
    34        while we are on this document, aspects of the advice they
    35        are giving?
    36        A.  Yes.  I would like to draw your attention to the page
    37        that begins "Golden rules for healthy eating".  This is a
    38        jolly good example of advertising copyrighting using
    39        weazel words, weazel expressions, with a view to
    40        ultimately confusing and certainly misleading the person
    41        who reads it.
    42
    43        If I can draw your attention to the second paragraph, each
    44        paragraph is very short.  The left-hand column under the
    45        main heading which reads "Variety" and the paragraph
    46        begins, "That is why it is impossible to say that one meal
    47        in isolation is better than another.  It is what you eat
    48        overall that counts".  This is an extension of the idea
    49        that no food is better than any other food.  No single
    50        food is better than any other single food in nutritional 
    51        terms. 
    52 
    53        They have extended this concept considerably further here
    54        by saying that one meal cannot be said or judged to be
    55        better than another meal, and that is an important word to
    56        which I will be referring again in a moment because
    57        McDonald's definition of a meal, I think, is particularly
    58        interesting.
    59
    60        I suspect that were this leaflet to be reissued again and

Prev Next Index