Day 024 - 15 Sep 94 - Page 37
1 brochures.
2 A. Yes, from talking with the various companies,
3 including McDonald's, it was clear to us that the
4 companies knew that their food was not nutritious in the
5 sense that I have been using it, and this memo gives
6 further support for specific knowledge on the part of
7 McDonald's prior to that meeting and certainly prior to
8 the 1987 advertising.
9
10 Q. Just one point of procedure I forgot to bring up. The
11 press cutting that was referred to earlier regarding -- it
12 was July 10th 1986 -- the distribution of ingredients
13 brochures.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You have a copy. Are you going to ask about
16 that, Mr. Rampton?
17
18 MR. RAMPTON: No, my Lord.
19
20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I had better have a look at it then.
21 (Same handed)
22
23 MR. MORRIS: We can just put it behind Mr. Gardner's
24 statement.
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I propose to do is, I am going to mark
27 mine 191A. I am going to put it in volume VI A behind the
28 letter of 21st July 1986 purely and simply because the
29 second paragraph of that letter says, "according to press
30 reports", and this appears to be one such report.
31
32 MR. MORRIS: May I just ask the witness, for the record, the
33 quotations from you in that press report, are they
34 accurate quotations?
35 A. I do not have one before me. Could you read it out to
36 me? (Handed to the witness).
37
38 Q. As far as I can see, it is only one small quote in the
39 second column.
40 A. I believe I was the only person at the Texas Attorney
41 General's office that Mr. Hidlay spoke with prior to
42 writing this article. I, therefore, believe that his
43 reference in the preceding paragraph was just the quotes
44 there that said "Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox said
45 through an assistant that the McDonald's" -----
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You need not dwell on it. The only reason
48 was there appeared to be a reference to a document which
49 we have not got. If Mr. Rampton is not going to seek to
50 make anything of it and you have not particularly wanted
51 to get anything from him, I do not suppose I shall. But
52 that is the where I put it in case we need to refer to it
53 in the future.
54
55 MR. MORRIS: Thank you.
56
57 MS. STEEL: We went through the letter of April 24th which the
58 Attorney General's office of Texas wrote to McDonald's.
59 Was that, in fact, the first communication that you had
60 with them concerning this advertising campaign?
