Day 296 - 07 Nov 96 - Page 19
1 claims that McDonald's food is nutritious. Our mutual
2 conclusion is that this advertising campaign is deceptive.
3 We therefore request that McDonald's immediately cease and
4 desist further use of this advertising campaign. The
5 reason for this is simple, McDonald's food is, as a whole,
6 not nutritious. The intent and result of the current
7 campaign is to deceive customers into believing the
8 opposite. Fast food customers often choose to go to
9 McDonald's because it is inexpensive and convenient. They
10 should not be fooled into eating there because you have
11 told them it is also nutritious." Then it went on to say,
12 "The new campaign appears it is intended to pull the wool
13 over the public's eyes".
14
15 We say what that opinion expressed in that letter, and
16 verified by Stephen Gardener, is a useful back up, if any
17 is needed, to the point that it has got to be reasonable to
18 say that McDonald's are attempting to deceive the public.
19 It has got to be a reasonable opinion to hold that
20 McDonald's are trying to show that their food is nutritious
21 when the reality is the opposite.
22
23 On the point about what the word 'nutritious' means to the
24 average member of the public, we would agree entirely with
25 Mr. Gardener, and adopt this as our view and argument; that
26 to the average consumer the word 'nutritious' conveys a
27 sense of a healthy product that is not deleterious to one's
28 physiological well being. Specifically, a product that is
29 nutritious is one that does not contain excessive amounts
30 of nutrients that should be avoided such as fats, sodium
31 and the like, sugar. We would say 'the like' refers to
32 sugar. Also, we would add that it does contain useful
33 amounts of vitamins and minerals on top of that, and
34 fibre. Again, the overall position being: is the food
35 making a positive or a negative contribution to the diet
36 overall, and to a healthy diet?
37
38 Just a final point. I forgot to mention the evidence of
39 Dr. Tim Lobstein, the co-director of the Food Commission,
40 who stated that he had studied eight suggested typical
41 McDonald's meal combinations, which are found in the back
42 of that same pamphlet, 'Good Food Nutrition and
43 McDonald's', so they are combinations suggested by the
44 company. He concluded that they are generally imbalanced
45 with regard to their nutrient content. He said that they
46 were excessively fatty and salty, and correspondingly low
47 in nutrient density, and that related to several of the
48 essential vitamins and minerals.
49
50 He said that the McDonald's line in their various nutrition
51 guides and publications that they put out, that their food
52 can be eaten as part of a balanced diet, is meaningless.
53 Because, as he said, you could eat a roll of Sellotape as
54 part of a balanced diet.
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, I am not sure I enjoyed his analogy,
57 but I took the point he was trying to make.
58
59 MS. STEEL: I don't suppose anybody would particularly want to
60 eat a roll of Sellotape, but... You could eat a handful
