Day 025 - 16 Sep 94 - Page 30


     
     1        much improve a case if you just throw in all points, good
     2        and bad?  Is it better to pick your best points and stick
     3        with them?
     4        A.  Yes, as a rule I would agree absolutely with you.  You
     5        would prefer to litigate only the ones you felt most
     6        certain of.
     7
     8   Q.   Then I would like to turn, if I may, to that letter of
     9        24th April.  I would like to look at the text on the first
    10        page, page 131.  I will read the whole of the first page:
    11         "The Attorneys General of Texas, California, and New York
    12        have concluded our joint review of McDonald's recent
    13        advertising campaign which claims that McDonald's food is
    14        nutritious.  Our mutual conclusion is that this
    15        advertising campaign is deceptive.  We therefore request
    16        that McDonald's immediately cease and desist further use
    17        of this advertising campaign.
    18
    19        The reason for this is simple:  McDonald's food is, as a
    20        whole, not nutritious."  I have asked you about that.
    21        I will not come back to it. "The intent and result of the
    22        current campaign is to deceive consumers into believing
    23        the opposite."
    24
    25        I am interested only in the word "intent".  When you say
    26        "intent", do you mean intent to deceive?  Do you mean by
    27        those words, or did the office of the Attorney General
    28        mean by those words a dishonest intent?
    29        A.  In that instance, I would say it did, yes.
    30
    31   Q.   "Fast food customers often choose to go to McDonald's
    32        because it is inexpensive and convenient.  They should not
    33        be fooled into eating there because you have told them it
    34        is also nutritious."  The word "fooled" is an ordinary
    35        English word.  Does it have the same connotation in
    36        America, a deliberate attempt to deceive somebody into
    37        doing something which otherwise they might not have done?
    38        A.  Not necessarily, no.  People can fool themselves.
    39        That would not be necessarily deliberate.
    40
    41   Q.   "McDonald's calculated move", what is a "calculated
    42        move"?  Does that mean one which has certain consequences
    43        or one which is intended to have those consequences?
    44        A.  One that is taken either knowingly or intentionally;
    45        one that is not accidental.
    46
    47   Q.   As a word, it is ambiguous, "calculated".  Right?  I can
    48        calculate the consequences of my actions, can I not, which
    49        means that I intend the consequences, does it not?
    50        A.  No, it does not and, no, it is not ambiguous. 
    51 
    52   Q.   What I am driving at is, in the context of this letter, 
    53        does the word "calculated" have a connotation of
    54        deliberate mental intention?
    55        A.  OK.
    56
    57   Q.   I am asking you what is meant by this word here?
    58        A.  I would say that it does connote in the context of
    59        this letter a deliberate act by McDonald's to promote its
    60        food as nutritious.  I refuse again to go beyond that and

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