Day 296 - 07 Nov 96 - Page 18


     
     1        balanced diet, which I think just goes to show how
     2        ludicrous the company's position is in their desperate
     3        attempt to justify the use of the word 'nutritious' in
     4        their literature and advertisements.
     5
     6   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Are you going to tell me at some stage what
     7        you think 'nutritious' would mean to the ordinary man in
     8        the street?
     9
    10   MS. STEEL:   Yes.
    11
    12   MR. MORRIS:   Can I say the Edward Oakley quote is day 64, page
    13        53.
    14
    15   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Thank you.
    16
    17   MS. STEEL:   Even Professor Wheelock defined the word
    18        'nutritious' to mean contains nutrients.  He had to accept
    19        that all foods have nutrients, so effectively the phrase
    20        'nutritious' is completely meaningless.  Well, if used in
    21        the way that McDonald's are suggesting that it should be
    22        used.
    23
    24        Obviously, in relation to our view of what the word
    25        'nutritious' means, I think that the evidence relating to
    26        the incident in the United States where the Assistant
    27        Attorney General of Texas, California and New York took
    28        action over what they considered to be a major but
    29        deceptive advertising campaign by McDonald's in 1987 is
    30        very useful evidence to consider.  McDonald's were claiming
    31        publicly that it was an informational campaign about the
    32        content of their food.  However, their own internal
    33        magazine stated that the aim was to neutralize the junk
    34        food misconceptions about McDonald's food.
    35
    36        At the same time, the reality of the situation and a
    37        recognition from McDonald's that their use of the word
    38        'nutritious' was effectively deceptive was revealed when
    39        we got the copy of the internal company memo which reported
    40        on a high level meeting in March 1986 with McDonald's
    41        public relations advisers prior to this advertising
    42        campaign, and that memo reported that the general feeling
    43        of the high level meeting was that "McDonald's should
    44        attempt to deflect the basic negative thrust of our
    45        critics.  How do we do this?   By talking moderation and
    46        balance.  We cannot really address or defend nutrition, we
    47        don't sell nutrition and people do not come to McDonald's
    48        for nutrition."  Obviously, we say that that admission is
    49        as clear as day that they are well aware that their food is
    50        not nutritious and it is not viewed by the public as being
    51        nutritious, but they are then going to proceed to attempt
    52        to deceive the public in order to persuade them to eat more
    53        of the company's junk food.
    54
    55        You will remember that Mr. Gardener, the former Assistant
    56        Attorney General of Texas, gave evidence that he had
    57        written, along with the other States, to McDonald's on 24th
    58        April 1987 stating that they, the Attorney General of
    59        Texas, California and New York, "... have concluded a joint
    60        review of McDonald's recent advertising campaign which

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