Day 299 - 13 Nov 96 - Page 23


     
     1        some of the advertising which they claim is directed at
     2        adults is clearly directed at children, as well, at
     3        minimum.
     4
     5        Mr. Hawks was not in a position to explain the total media
     6        expenditure figures.  He actually said that he had not
     7        prepared them, that they had been prepared by the
     8        advertising agency.  So the evidence that he had to give in
     9        relation to them was all basically hearsay, and the only
    10        evidence that we are left with is the charts which show
    11        that there are far more weeks of advertising directed at
    12        children in any year in virtually all the regions than
    13        there are directed at adults.  Sorry, I have got a bit off
    14        the point there.
    15
    16        Mr. Hawks also said that he did not think that there was
    17        anything wrong with only advertising to children and that
    18        he would not be offended if somebody said that McDonald's
    19        did only advertise to children.  Day 48, page 9, line 60.
    20        He said that in new areas they only advertised to children,
    21        and he said about that, "one of the tactics is to reach
    22        families through children".  So that was one of the obvious
    23        reasons for only advertising to children in new areas,
    24        although he did claim that a lot of that air time would
    25        also be seen by a parent so it would begin to help to
    26        position McDonald's.  That was day 4, line 10 page 10, line
    27        12.
    28
    29        On day 28, page 10, line 60 he said that if there was a new
    30        market, a whole new region, which had not previously
    31        received any advertising then the company would introduce
    32        the ronald mcdonald character prior to everything else. And
    33        he said, "Typically, to give you an example, when we came
    34        to the UK the first TV advertising was Ronald".
    35
    36        It is quite clear from all these statements that the
    37        company does rely heavily on advertising to children, and
    38        that certainly they do consider it to be a very useful
    39        tactic to aim advertising solely at children to get the
    40        whole thing moving.  He said on page 11, day 48, that they
    41        would start off aiming mostly at children to get the
    42        company known, but then gradually but quickly shift towards
    43        more and more adult advertising.  It was unclear what he
    44        meant by 'quickly shift', but I think if you look at the
    45        1987 and 1988 figures for the Border and Scotland region it
    46        is clear this it was well over a year that it took before
    47        they started having anything like the number of
    48        advertisements to adults as they had to children.  And that
    49        was in 1989, the figures were 41 weeks advertising to
    50        children as against 33 to adults, and Grampian it was 43 to
    51        children as against 18 to adults.  So there is still a big
    52        difference there.
    53
    54        Other matters to take into consideration about the
    55        company's advertising spend on children is that on day 48,
    56        page 9, line 6, Mr. Hawkes said that the figures did not
    57        include ronald mcdonald appearances and that -- and this
    58        was on page 13 from line 34 onwards -- an advert during
    59        Coronation Street with the London region would cost about
    60        £30,000 for 30 seconds whereas an advert during children's

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