Day 037 - 14 Oct 94 - Page 20
1
2 Q. Just hold on a second. Is that the basis for saying that
3 statement above is -----
4 A. Yes.
5
6 Q. - is fair comment?
7 A. Yes. I mean, the statement above in the claim I do
8 not think is particularly well expressed, because there is
9 no connection really between the first half of the
10 sentence, or perhaps there may be, "deliberately
11 misleading the public as to the nutritional value of the
12 food they sell when they know full well that the
13 contents", and so on. I mean, it seems to me there are
14 two items being discussed there, but -----
15
16 Q. I mean, we are concentrating on the first, as far as you
17 are concerned, which is your area of expertise?
18 A. Yes, exactly.
19
20 Q. So if we move on to the next point.
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Then you seek to illustrate that.
23
24 MR. MORRIS: Yes. I am getting confused because it is the
25 Plaintiffs' Statement of Claim and it is repeated. What
26 is your understanding of the implications for McDonald's
27 food for heart disease, the general accepted view? You
28 quoted the Department of Health on that.
29 A. Yes.
30
31 Q. What is your general understanding of that as a lay
32 person?
33 A. Well, the background is this, that we have a huge
34 incidence of heart disease in this country which, through
35 acclimatisation, I think, many of us now accept is a fact
36 of life or, perhaps, rather a fact of death. There are
37 some statistics that I could refer to from the British
38 Heart Foundation showing that, I believe, it is one in
39 every four males will suffer from heart disease. If you
40 would like me to be specific about that, I can have those
41 figures.
42
43 Q. No, we do not want you to be specific.
44 A. This is the background, therefore, that we have at the
45 moment a plague of heart disease in this country. If
46 McDonald's are going to set themselves up as nutritional
47 consultants, which they do, they have an overwhelming
48 responsibility to do two things, I would say; first of
49 all, to tell people the truth and not masquerade it as
50 part of their marketing policy; secondly, to do something
51 about it. I stress that is only the case if they do feel
52 a need to consider themselves to be advisers on
53 nutrition. If they do not, that is fine, but they clearly
54 do. They do demonstrate this as part of their marketing
55 strategy.
56
57 Why it is part of their marketing strategy I think it is
58 quite easy to see, because it is an attempt to protect
59 this amazingly delicate thing they have created called the
60 McDonald's image. Once the image is tarnished, once the
