Day 037 - 14 Oct 94 - Page 16


     
     1        way McDonald's had attempted - unsuccessfully - to
     2        localize its menu in Holland.  Rather, he decided to sell
     3        the hamburger to the Japanese as a 'revolutionary
     4        product'.  He gave lectures on it at universities and
     5        attracted considerable press coverage by making outrageous
     6        statements about the hamburger's properties and by
     7        revealing his plans to hamburger outlets throughout
     8        Japan.  'The reason Japanese people are so short and have
     9        yellow skins is because they have eaten nothing but fish
    10        and rice for two thousand years,' he told reporters.  'If
    11        we eat McDonald's hamburgers and potatoes for a thousand
    12        years, we will become taller, our skin will become white,
    13        and our hair blonde.'"
    14
    15        I do not think even McDonald's themselves could
    16        characterise that as ethical marketing.  Nevertheless, it
    17        shows the extent to which on an international basis they
    18        are prepared to go to subvert the local culture.  In
    19        short, they lie.
    20
    21        Page 428 is an interesting example too.  It is the third
    22        paragraph from the top.  In fact, it is the final
    23        paragraph on the page.  It is another tactic that was
    24        adopted in Japan.  About a third of the way through the
    25        paragraph, it starts (this is Fujita):  "He was quick to
    26        advertise on television, and he made certain that the
    27        spots had a Japanese flavor.  Convinced that McDonald's
    28        would have better luck selling the new hamburger product
    29        to Japan's youth, he aimed virtually all his advertising
    30        at children and young families. 'The eating habits of
    31        older Japanese are very conservative,' he explains. 'But
    32        we could teach the children that the hamburger was
    33        something good.'"  Again, this is a subversive approach;
    34        it is not studying the market and responding to it; it is
    35        nothing but subversion.
    36
    37        Page 433.
    38
    39   Q.   When you say "subverting", when you say "it is not
    40        studying the market", is it dictating the market?
    41        A.  Absolutely.  That is precisely what it is.  Page 433,
    42        the second paragraph from the top ends with their attempt
    43        to do the same thing in Sweden, so a pattern is emerging
    44        here:  "Former customers warned him that Swedes would not
    45        eat hamburgers".
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Which part of page 433?
    48        A.  The second paragraph from the top, the final two
    49        sentences:  "Former customers warned him that Swedes would
    50        not eat hamburgers, and journalists asked why he wanted to 
    51        introduce 'plastic food' to Sweden.  'Hamburgers are 
    52        wholesome food,' he insisted, 'just like Swedish 
    53        meatballs, only flat.'"  Again, another attempt to sell
    54        something that has every indication that the consumers
    55        would initially resist.
    56
    57        Just over the page, page 435, we see the same pattern
    58        repeated in Australia -- it is a rather longer quote this
    59        time -- it is the second paragraph from the top; it runs
    60        just over the page to page 436.  It begins thus:  "But

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