Day 299 - 13 Nov 96 - Page 10


     
     1        Well, it seems that the sort of four main strands of
     2        questions that come out of the section of the leaflet, one
     3        is 'do McDonald's target children?'  Sorry, the first is,
     4        'do McDonald's target children', and we would say that it
     5        is more or less irrelevant what proportion of McDonald's
     6        advertising is aimed at children, although in our view the
     7        statement in the leaflet was certainly true for the 1980s
     8        and the majority of their advertising and promotional
     9        activity was aimed at children.  I will come back to that.
    10        But the point is that if that statement is deemed to be
    11        defamatory, it is not because McDonald's aim more of their
    12        advertising at children than at adults but that they target
    13        children in a large way, or they direct a substantial
    14        amount of advertising towards children.  I mean -----
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I understand that point.
    17
    18   MS. STEEL:   Right.  Okay.  It is clear from all the evidence we
    19        have heard that they do aim a substantial amount of
    20        advertising at children.
    21
    22        Just another point on that is, firstly, that the leaflet
    23        does not say that nearly all McDonald's advertising is
    24        aimed solely at children, just that nearly all of it is
    25        aimed at children, and I think you might remember that
    26        Mr. Hawkes did say that a large proportion of the
    27        advertisements aimed at adults -- that he said were aimed
    28        at adults -- featured children and would appeal to
    29        children.  In terms of the perception of the general
    30        public, I think that most ordinary members of the public
    31        would consider such an advertisement to be aimed at
    32        children as well as being aimed at adults, and therefore to
    33        increase the proportion of advertisements which are aimed
    34        at children.  (Pause)
    35
    36        I mean, we think that the issue of what amount was spent on
    37        which type of adverts is basically a red herring because,
    38        apart from anything else, it is very fortunate for
    39        McDonald's that advertising during children's television is
    40        a lot cheaper than advertising during adults' television.
    41
    42        The second question in relation to what we are looking at
    43        is:  do the advertisements which McDonald's use encourage
    44        children to think that eating at McDonald's is part of
    45        everyday life or that...  I cannot remember the phrase you
    46        used -- but if they do not go there they will not fit in
    47        with the crowd or they will be left out, whatever.  They
    48        will feel left out.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   The odd one out.  Yes, I see.
    51
    52   MS. STEEL:   Yes, thank you.  That can apply not just to whether
    53        or not the advertisements are part of...  When I say
    54        'everyday life', that does not mean that you have got to
    55        go there every day, just that you know it is something that
    56        everybody else is doing, like having a party there or, you
    57        know, going there for a treat or whatever, it is something
    58        that everybody else is doing and you do not want to feel
    59        left out.
    60

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