Day 186 - 10 Nov 95 - Page 09


     
     1        McDonald's food?" does not add anything.  It is unhealthy
     2        because it is high in fat, etcetera, not because one meal
     3        would give you cancer or heart disease.  It is called
     4        unhealthy because health professionals recommend that we
     5        avoid or eat less of that type of food, in a similar way
     6        that smoking is considered an unhealthy pastime, although
     7        one or two cigarettes, or a packet, or even smoking for a
     8        year, or something like that, is not necessarily going to
     9        give you cancer or heart disease, it is still considered an
    10        unhealthy pastime.
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes?
    13
    14   MS. STEEL:  Moving on to the headings across the top of the
    15        leaflet, "McDollars", "McGreedy", "McCancer", "McMurder",
    16        "McDisease", etcetera, I would submit that they do not add
    17        anything to the meaning of the text or change it in any
    18        way.  They are merely designed to catch the eye, to
    19        encourage people to read further.  I think they are really
    20        taking the mickey out of the McDonald's logo as a means of
    21        being eye catching and encouraging people to read the rest
    22        of the leaflet.
    23
    24        Even supposing that people did read them as if they were
    25        statements of fact -- which, personally, I do not really
    26        see how they can -- they would have to look at them and
    27        say:  "What do they mean?  What do the headings
    28        'McDollars,' 'McHunger', 'McCancer', 'McTorture' mean on
    29        their own?"  On their own, they mean absolutely nothing.
    30        Therefore, their meaning must be taken from the text.  They
    31        rely on the text for an explanation of the meaning.
    32
    33        Take "McHunger".  What does that mean?  It could be related
    34        to Third World hunger or it could be related to the
    35        statement in the leaflet:  "Why do you feel hungry again so
    36        soon after eating a Big Mac?"; or it could be about
    37        something else.
    38
    39        Does "McGarbage" refer to junk food, or is it about waste
    40        packaging, or is it a sum-up of what the Company is or what
    41        it stands for?  If it was about waste packaging, what and
    42        how much are they responsible for?
    43
    44        There is no quantity in the headings; there is no
    45        explanation about what they mean.  They do not mean
    46        anything on their own.  To get the quantity, to get the
    47        meaning, you have to read the text.  Similarly, if you had
    48        "McCancer" on its own somewhere, apart from this leaflet,
    49        just a piece of paper saying "McCancer", the Plaintiffs say
    50        that that means their food and you get cancer.  We have 
    51        said that it could mean that McDonald's are a cancer on 
    52        society, or that it could mean that you could get cancer 
    53        from dioxins through the packaging process or through CFCs
    54        destroying the ozone layer.  It is basically meaningless on
    55        its own, because there are so many possibilities.
    56
    57        If "McCancer" means that if you eat McDonald's food you
    58        will get cancer, as the Plaintiffs propose, does
    59        "McDollars" mean that if you eat McDonald's food you will
    60        get dollars?

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