Day 299 - 13 Nov 96 - Page 31
1 that the association of Ronald to children was very much
2 one of the whole McDonald's experience, the food and
3 everything else. They associate everything to do with
4 McDonald's with Ronald, it is the sort of personification
5 of McDonald's to young children. Sorry, I think that was a
6 quote from Mr. Hawkes, referring to the operations manual.
7 I said that wrong.
8
9 Then some other examples of techniques aside from the use
10 of ronald mcdonald which are designed to encourage children
11 to feel that they want to make McDonald's, or that
12 McDonald's is a part of everyday life and not wanting to
13 feel left out. There was a reference to the World Cup
14 advertisement that McDonald's made at the time of the World
15 Cup two years ago, and Mr. Hawkes, on day 42, page 55, line
16 10, said that the benefits of being associated with the
17 World Cup was being topical and associated with things that
18 were happening in the world.
19 There were other benefits as well, which I will come on to
20 in another section, but that is a clear reference to
21 wanting to be part of what was 'in', for want of a better
22 phrase.
23
24 On day 42, page 23, line 23, Mr. Hawkes agreed that a big
25 factor in terms of influencing behaviour of children was
26 their peers and wanting to fit in with the crowd.
27 Obviously, that ties in with, for example, the football
28 advertisement and so on. It is all about trying to make
29 McDonald's a part of everyday life.
30
31 Just on that subject, day 42, page 56, line 35, talking
32 about the joint promotion between Disney and McDonald's of
33 the Lion King, McDonald's using Lion King toys in their
34 happy meal boxes, Mr. Hawkes said: "We are riding on the
35 back of Disney's popularity with the Lion King. Obviously,
36 that would have a strong appeal to children who frequently
37 enjoy Disney films. Everyone is going to be talking about
38 them at school, and if they can go to McDonald's and get
39 toys from that Lion King character that is going to be very
40 appealing, and if they cannot persuade their parents to
41 take them there or cannot afford to go there themselves,
42 whatever, they are going to feel left out. So there will a
43 strong pressure on them to be a part of that. This was the
44 advert for sunglasses, 'Get your sunglasses at McDonald's'
45 is one of their promotional things.
46
47 On day 42, page 49, line 12, there was a reference -- well,
48 it was brought up about the fact that the advert referred
49 to 'being cool', and Mr. Hawkes said that that meant to be
50 cool and trendy, it is to be topical or fresh of today,
51 contemporary, whatever is happening now is what we want to
52 be, it is definitely the place to be. And that has got to
53 be a clear and blatant example of trying to persuade
54 children that they should go to McDonald's to be part of
55 the "in crowd".
56
57 Then finally on this point, on day 48, page 47, line 52, we
58 just watched an advertisement where there was, I think, a
59 child going into McDonald's with its grandparent, I can't
60 remember whether it was a boy or girl, and the child said
