Day 299 - 13 Nov 96 - Page 34


     
     1        fun experience when they come.  That is on page 29, line
     2        19.  The purpose of having four different toys is to
     3        encourage frequency of visits; it was a different one each
     4        week.  Which is a clear example of McDonald's using
     5        gimmicks to get children to visit the stores more often.
     6
     7        On day 41, page 26, line 59, Mr. Hawkes said about the
     8        absence of menu items from children's advertisements which
     9        he had asserted was the case, although we later saw that in
    10        fact there were actually quite a lot of menu items in the
    11        advertisements, it was just that they were dressed up in a
    12        cartoon type style, rather than being, you know, a
    13        photographic image of the menu items, and he said that in
    14        the area of advertising to children, we do not really sell
    15        in a direct way, we do not therefore show too much of the
    16        relationship between the characters and the food and the
    17        selling of food, although you would see smaller food
    18        items.
    19
    20        And if the company is not showing or is deliberately trying
    21        not to show a photographic depiction of the food, then that
    22        can only be because they are trying to deceive children
    23        into going to the stores to get -- I mean, the point is
    24        that they are trying to encourage children to come to the
    25        stores by use of things other than the product which is
    26        what they are actually trying to sell.
    27
    28        Usually it is by use of the characters, which, whilst they
    29        are depictions of the food items, the purpose of the -- or
    30        the picture being created in the mind of the child is not
    31        one of going there to eat the food, it is of going there to
    32        play with the food, play with the characters.
    33
    34   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Where do you get that from?
    35
    36   MS. STEEL:   What from?
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Did he actually say that?
    39
    40   MS. STEEL:   Who?   No, that was my comment at the end of it.
    41        Because if you have got all these dancing fry cartons and
    42        we saw dancing shakes and so on ----
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   That is not to say that children are not
    45        looking forward to actually eating McDonald's food because
    46        they find it tasty, is it?
    47
    48   MS. STEEL:   Well, it is to say that what is being pushed at the
    49        children is the image of having a fun time with all these
    50        cartoon food characters rather than eating the food
    51        itself.
    52
    53   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I agree that is what may be being pushed in
    54        the advertising, but the fact is that the children may well
    55        like McDonald's for the experience, but, for better or
    56        worse, they also like the taste of its food and drinks, do
    57        they not?
    58
    59   MS. STEEL:   Actually, if you speak to any number of parents who
    60        take their children to McDonald's for the Happy Meals, they

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