Day 012 - 18 Jul 94 - Page 31
1 A. Yes, there is a staff of eight attorneys.
2 Q. They would, perhaps this follows, be attorneys who know
about things like deceptive advertising and the law which
3 governs it?
A. That is correct.
4
Q. We see this memorandum is dated November 20th 1986. It is
5 addressed to Mr. David Green at McDonald's. Who is
Mr. David Green?
6 A. Mr. Green is the No.2 officer in charge of all
marketing and advertising at McDonald's. He is presently
7 senior vice president at McDonald's.
8 Q. The subject matter of the letter is the proposed
advertisement about cholesterol, which we will have a look
9 at in a moment, Mr. Horwitz. It says this: "Michael
Goldblatt", you told us he is a McDonald's person?
10 A. Yes, he is.
11 Q. "... met with Harvey Anderson, assistant director,
University of Toronto Medical School, to get his feed back
12 on the nutrition campaign. Overall he" -- that must be
Mr. Anderson -- "thought the campaign was well done,
13 informative, interesting and timely. However, he raised
concern about the cholesterol ad. He believes this ad
14 makes us most vulnerable to our critics for the following
reasons:
15
First, he does not believe we adequately address fat
16 content. Harvey's point of view is that cholesterol
content should not be divorced from per cent of calories
17 from fat. Health professionals recommend that no more
than 30 to 35 per cent of calories come from fat. Harvey's
18 concern is that we don't address this in the ad.
19 2. Harvey believes the headline is more issue orientated
than it is informational. His concern is that we are
20 raising an issue with the cholesterol ad while headlines
in the other ads are informative.
21
Michael Golblatt thinks Harvey has a valid point of view
22 but is not sure how many people will have the same
insight. Michael", that is Michael Goldblatt, the
23 McDonald's person, "suggested changing the headline to
'What about Cholesterol?' Harvey believes this would
24 create less of an issue. However, this headline is not
worthy of the handle visual" -- we will see the handle
25 visual in a moment, Mr. Horwitz -- "It is also our point
of view that if fat contents are the cause of the concern
26 we should work on new copy, not do a quick fix on the
headline.
27
Goldblatt believes we are open to criticism with this ad
28 but he does not think we need to pull it from the
campaign. We" -- that is Leo Burnett -- "recommend
29 continuing with the ad as planned. We add very
specifically it informs consumers about the kinds of oil
30 McDonald's uses. There is nothing false or misleading in
the ad".
