Day 299 - 13 Nov 96 - Page 37


     
     1        of the Plaintiffs' argument that they are completely
     2        ethical and aboveboard in their advertising to children, is
     3        that they have this wonderful code of, you know, how they
     4        should present advertising to children.  It is clear that
     5        basically the code is just, it is a piece of paper, and,
     6        you know, they do not take any notice of it.
     7
     8        I think there were either two or three advertisements where
     9        children were on their own in a store.  Mr. Hawkes actually
    10        admitted on day 42, page 31, that the advert we just looked
    11        at, which I can't remember -----
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   There was one of a girl coming up to the
    14        counter, and there was the other one of the little child
    15        sitting at a table which he or another witness said was
    16        clearly a sort of dreamland representation.  But anyway,
    17        you have said why.  I do not want to get bogged down in the
    18        detail about that.
    19
    20        It may be that I am really only interested in codes in two
    21        respects.  The first is whether it is relevant to any of
    22        the issues I have to decide if McDonald's do, generally
    23        speaking, observe national codes as to advertising.  I may
    24        decide it is not.  I may decide those who are responsible
    25        for the codes have not got it right.  But ----
    26
    27   MS. STEEL:   I mean, I have not got anything more to say on
    28        this, apart from the fact that on day 42, page 31, line 27,
    29        Mr. Hawkes accepted that that particular ad that he was
    30        referring to at that time was against the company's
    31        guidelines.  And I do not think that there is anything
    32        special about the codes, the McDonald's Golden Arches
    33        code.  The only reason I have brought it up is in case
    34        Mr. Rampton is going to rely on it to say how great and how
    35        ethical they are.
    36
    37        On the page about ronald mcdonald, this is bundle page 55,
    38        "Who is ronald mcdonald?"  "ronald mcdonald is a clown,
    39        the fact that he is a corporate spokesman should not over
    40        shadow his clownness.  He is all the good things that come
    41        to mind when thinking of clowns; he is full of fun and
    42        friendship.  Sometimes zany, sometimes daring, always
    43        amusing.  Ronald is at home anywhere he goes, as well as
    44        other characters look up to him, respect him and like him a
    45        lot.  Ronald is always clown-like but also intelligent and
    46        sensitive, and so on.  Additionally, Ronald can do nearly
    47        anything, even including incredible feats of magic.  The
    48        antics of the other characters serve to compliment Ronald's
    49        humour, they do not upstage him.  Ronald is real, he lives
    50        in McDonaldland and the real world.  Ronald is a star."
    51
    52        This is obviously a carefully designed character designed
    53        to appeal to children to encourage them to see him as a
    54        friend and therefore to see McDonald's as a friend, and his
    55        use in both advertisements and in in-store performances is
    56        really just -- well, it is basically playing on children's
    57        emotions.  Obviously, they would like to be friends with
    58        him and, you know, they like clowns because they are a bit
    59        fun, they want to have fun, and thereby the company gets
    60        children to come into the stores and buy more of its

Prev Next Index