Day 299 - 13 Nov 96 - Page 15
1
2 The company's operation manual is obviously not available
3 to the public. It is kept in a safe. There is one for
4 each store, it is my understanding. His view was that
5 children were virgin ground so far as marketing was
6 concerned and that McDonald's could change people's eating
7 habits. Obviously, that would include children who are
8 going to be very susceptible to influence from advertising
9 messages and from messages coming from a clown who was
10 designed to appeal to them and tell them how much he loved
11 McDonald's food.
12
13 Mr. Robert Beavers, the senior vice president and member of
14 the board of directors of the McDonald's Corporation,
15 stated that back in the 1960s McDonald's were "the
16 trend-setters in the food industry, in particular the fast
17 food service industry in utilising national television".
18 And he said that it was at that time that the Ronald
19 McDonald character was introduced.
20
21 With reference to the ronald mcdonald character, he agreed
22 that "no other marketing factor has been more important in
23 distinguishing McDonald's as a leader in fast food than its
24 early decision to appeal to children through advertising".
25 And I think that quote was actually taken from the John
26 Love book, which was authorised by McDonald's and written
27 with their cooperation.
28
29 Mr. Beavers also said that in the early days the company
30 probably did spend more of its advertising budget on
31 children's advertisements and he stated that within a short
32 period of time ronald mcdonald was one of the most
33 well-known popular characters in America.
34
35 Mr. Fairgrieve, you remember the report I was referring to
36 last week, actually I can't remember which tab it was in
37 and I have not got it with me this week, and this was a
38 quote from the survey. It said McDonald's is more likely
39 to be chosen than its competitors in response to kids'
40 pestering. Mr. Fairgrieve said that the company had known
41 that for several years and that it was broadly a positive
42 from their perspective. He said it is the kind of thing
43 you just tick off as you go through, it is like "well, that
44 is okay".
45
46 So it is clear there that Mr. Fairgrieve is saying that
47 pester power or that the children pestering their parents
48 to take them to McDonald's was fine as far as the company
49 was concerned, they were quite happy about that. Bearing
50 in mind that they are quite happy about it, and they have
51 been aware that it goes on for years, you might wonder why
52 it was they decided to sue us over that and allege that it
53 was defamatory and libelous.
54
55 This is really on the point about the section of the
56 leaflet that talks about children living out the advert,
57 where Mr. Fairgrieve said that quite simply the idea of
58 having a personal appearance programme for ronald mcdonald
59 is to bring the McDonald's experience as seen in the
60 advertising fully alive in the restaurant with a physical
