Day 024 - 15 Sep 94 - Page 52
1 letter. It is the second paragraph, third paragraph on
2 page 4 of the second paragraph, with respect to that
3 objection that I would differ with. That paragraph says
4 we blatantly mischaracterised the advertisement. That is
5 not true.
6
7 The next sentence of that paragraph says that the text of
8 the advertisement does not even mention McDonald's regular
9 hamburger, let alone emphasise its cholesterol content.
10 That is literally true because the text of the
11 advertisement does not, but it is also a nearly classic
12 example of how representation can be literally true and
13 yet be misleading and deceptive, because the advertisement
14 in what I believe my testimony I referred to as a
15 pictorial matter -- it is the chart which is technically
16 not a part of the text, it is a part of the illustration
17 for the advertisement -- the chart does give that
18 information on the regular hamburger.
19
20 They were trying a little bit of a show game on us here,
21 to deny the truth of our accusation by denying there was a
22 basis for the accusation. The fact that it was in the
23 text, they go on to qualify that it was only in a chart.
24 I notice a lot of the other disclosures that McDonald's
25 gives of the semi-bad facts in there about, that they do
26 give on nutritional aspects of their food are also put
27 only in charts.
28
29 But, nonetheless, they did give that information in the
30 advertisement. It did not happen to be in there; it was
31 deliberately placed in there by McDonald's as part of the
32 chart, as part of the information they chose to give
33 people. Therefore, we stand by what we said. It, in
34 fact, does not mention the saturated fat content of
35 irregular hamburgers in this chart. It says fat, but we
36 do not know how much saturated fat is in there. We do
37 know how much saturated fat is in the regular fries
38 because McDonald's chose to tell us that in the body copy,
39 in the text under: "What about our world famous french
40 fries in that ad?" They tell us that. They do not -- they
41 want us to know that, but they do not tell us the
42 saturated fat content of the regular hamburger. I, as a
43 consumer, cannot determine that.
44
45 Q. Why would people be concerned about keeping their
46 cholesterol levels down?
47 A. There is a fairly well-established link between
48 elevated cholesterol levels anywhere from about 250 and up
49 and heart disease.
50
51 Q. So people who are concerned about their cholesterol levels
52 or not eating too much, food with too much cholesterol in,
53 that would be for health reasons?
54 A. Yes, but both food without much cholesterol in it and
55 food that while it does not have any cholesterol itself,
56 has something that makes it cholesterolaemia, something
57 that would make it raise the cholesterol level in your
58 body. You can raise your cholesterol by consuming
59 cholesterol which the body then assimilates into the serum
60 cholesterol in the body, or you can raise your serum
