Day 024 - 15 Sep 94 - Page 53
1 cholesterol by consuming products that have the effect in
2 the body of raising your cholesterol level. That is what
3 saturated fat does.
4
5 Q. So that was your reason for the complaint, that they had
6 not mentioned saturated fat content. Perhaps you can
7 explain the reason why you were complaining about the
8 saturated fat content?
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is the first stage to see where Mr. Gardner
11 says that the cholesterol ad emphasises the relatively low
12 29 milligram cholesterol content of the regular hamburger,
13 because that seems to be -----
14
15 MS. STEEL: I think he has answered that.
16
17 THE WITNESS: The emphasis of that is in the chart, your
18 Lordship.
19
20 MS. STEEL: If a customer reads more about cholesterol and
21 McDonald's good food and then looks at that chart, what do
22 you think they would assume from that chart or get from
23 this overall?
24 A. That involves a different consideration than what
25 I have been talking about, and is a distinction worth
26 drawing. The consumer who is looking at this ad wanting
27 to get information necessary is not going to get it.
28 There are other consumers who are going to look at this
29 ad, and their take-away is going to be basically that
30 McDonald's is doing better about cholesterol; cholesterol
31 is reduced, or is relatively low as to the fries. Looking
32 at the chart, they are more likely for this group of
33 consumers just to see fries, hamburger, fillet-o-fish and
34 vanilla milk shake, and not get into the details of the
35 chart; associate that information with the good
36 information about the fries. People want to be told good
37 news on nutrition. People want to be reassured that they
38 are not poisoning their children when they take them to
39 McDonald's. They are very likely to respond positively to
40 positive advertising, reassuring them that what they are
41 doing is OK; not all but that is what a group of consumers
42 who will have seen this ad, how they are going to
43 respond. The ones who want to go beyond that feel good
44 aspect of the advertisement and get to the truth cannot do
45 so from the information that McDonald's provided.
46
47 Q. Then just to go on to the advertising campaign as a whole,
48 why you consider it was deceptive or if there are any
49 specifics in any of the other advertisements you
50 particularly wanted to draw to our attention?
51 A. There is one that occurs to me in reading what I was
52 just looking at with regard to the saturated fat content
53 in the ad that is titled "Leaner".
54
55 MR. MORRIS: That is page 116 in the bundle and 117.
56 A. What McDonald's says is that the Quarter Pounder is at
57 least 77.5 per cent lean. It then goes on to say
58 hamburger meat may have up to 30 per cent, but we have no
59 more than 22.5 per cent. The problem there is, that in
60 terms of nutritional comparison for fat content in foods,
