Day 042 - 31 Oct 94 - Page 55
1 key thing being anyway to keep well within the law of the
2 land that you are in anyway in terms of advertising
3 practice and codes.
4
5 MS. STEEL: You mentioned on Friday about the World Cup advert,
6 that you were trying to associate McDonald's with the World
7 Cup and sport?
8 A. That is right, yes.
9
10 Q. What benefits are there to McDonald's from being associated
11 with the World Cup?
12 A. Well, I almost come back to the point before, about
13 being of today and topical and associated with the things
14 that are happening in the world. The World Cup is a very
15 high profile event which is supported by many, many people
16 in this country -- football being the national sport. So,
17 therefore, to associate oneself with that particular sport
18 makes you topical, relevant to that particular country. In
19 other words, in this country, it would be mostly male but a
20 lot of female adults as well.
21
22 Q. What is the purpose of being associated with something that
23 is popular?
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Why not put it to him directly?
26 (To the witness): Would I be wrong if I said that you were
27 hoping for an association with fitness and vigour?
28 A. I think in terms of the take out, overall take out, of
29 being associated with sport then, yes, that is a healthy
30 past time and we have no problem being associated with
31 that.
32
33 MS. STEEL: "Our food is healthy", is that what you are hoping
34 people will think as well?
35 A. Our food is certainly not unhealthy, that is certainly
36 true, yes.
37
38 Q. Is that the aim then?
39 A. Well, there are lots of aims in that association --
40 that would be one of them.
41
42 MR. MORRIS: It may be an obvious question, but when you are
43 associated with the Lion King (which, I believe, is going
44 to be the largest selling film of all time, the largest
45 grossing film of all time) is the association an important
46 thing for McDonald's, so you get some feed back, you get
47 some come-backs, more interest in your stores, because you
48 are associated with that film?
49 A. In terms of, obviously, the appeal of the particular
50 toys that we sell around the Lion King are very popular
51 and, yes, people would come in as a result.
52
53 Q. But even if they did not want the toys, do you feel you get
54 a benefit of being associated with a Disney box office
55 success?
56 A. We would be interested in associating ourselves with
57 companies that had the same kind of standards as
58 ourselves. So, in being associated with Disney then, yes,
59 we would be quite happy with that; whether or not we
60 directly get additional sales simply because we are
