Day 296 - 07 Nov 96 - Page 18
1 balanced diet, which I think just goes to show how
2 ludicrous the company's position is in their desperate
3 attempt to justify the use of the word 'nutritious' in
4 their literature and advertisements.
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Are you going to tell me at some stage what
7 you think 'nutritious' would mean to the ordinary man in
8 the street?
9
10 MS. STEEL: Yes.
11
12 MR. MORRIS: Can I say the Edward Oakley quote is day 64, page
13 53.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Thank you.
16
17 MS. STEEL: Even Professor Wheelock defined the word
18 'nutritious' to mean contains nutrients. He had to accept
19 that all foods have nutrients, so effectively the phrase
20 'nutritious' is completely meaningless. Well, if used in
21 the way that McDonald's are suggesting that it should be
22 used.
23
24 Obviously, in relation to our view of what the word
25 'nutritious' means, I think that the evidence relating to
26 the incident in the United States where the Assistant
27 Attorney General of Texas, California and New York took
28 action over what they considered to be a major but
29 deceptive advertising campaign by McDonald's in 1987 is
30 very useful evidence to consider. McDonald's were claiming
31 publicly that it was an informational campaign about the
32 content of their food. However, their own internal
33 magazine stated that the aim was to neutralize the junk
34 food misconceptions about McDonald's food.
35
36 At the same time, the reality of the situation and a
37 recognition from McDonald's that their use of the word
38 'nutritious' was effectively deceptive was revealed when
39 we got the copy of the internal company memo which reported
40 on a high level meeting in March 1986 with McDonald's
41 public relations advisers prior to this advertising
42 campaign, and that memo reported that the general feeling
43 of the high level meeting was that "McDonald's should
44 attempt to deflect the basic negative thrust of our
45 critics. How do we do this? By talking moderation and
46 balance. We cannot really address or defend nutrition, we
47 don't sell nutrition and people do not come to McDonald's
48 for nutrition." Obviously, we say that that admission is
49 as clear as day that they are well aware that their food is
50 not nutritious and it is not viewed by the public as being
51 nutritious, but they are then going to proceed to attempt
52 to deceive the public in order to persuade them to eat more
53 of the company's junk food.
54
55 You will remember that Mr. Gardener, the former Assistant
56 Attorney General of Texas, gave evidence that he had
57 written, along with the other States, to McDonald's on 24th
58 April 1987 stating that they, the Attorney General of
59 Texas, California and New York, "... have concluded a joint
60 review of McDonald's recent advertising campaign which
