Day 299 - 13 Nov 96 - Page 33


     
     1        get children to pester their parents.
     2
     3        The quote that you were asking about earlier; it was on day
     4        41, page 58, line 45, when Mr. Morris was questioning Mr.
     5        Hawkes, and he said that they did not do much advertising
     6        aimed at eight to 15 year-olds.  Mr. Morris was questioning
     7        him about why that was.  At one point he said, and this was
     8        round about line 60 on the same page:  "At that age they do
     9        not pester their parents to go to McDonald's.  It does not
    10        work in the same way.  They are not as brand loyal as the
    11        earlier age group can be or the later age group can be."
    12
    13        On day 42, page 26, line 19, Mr. Hawkes said that,
    14        obviously, the Ronald advertising was designed to appeal to
    15        children and therefore appeal to them to go to McDonald's,
    16        and that was the reason that they did the advertising.  He
    17        said at line 31 that it was to get their parents to buy
    18        them food.  And it was shortly after that that he said
    19        McDonald's would not be happy if their stores would be
    20        filled with children and their parents who had come along
    21        for the experience but were not buying food.  That was line
    22        38 on the same page.
    23
    24        There was a useful summary which you actually provided on
    25        day 42, page 37, starting at line 24, which Mr. Hawkes
    26        agreed with, which was that the McDonald's experience is
    27        attractive, not just the food but the whole business of
    28        going into McDonald's is a treat and fun, that makes
    29        children want to go to McDonald's, and that leads to them
    30        attempting to persuade their parents to take them to
    31        McDonald's.  That means when they go there McDonald's sell
    32        food, and that means that McDonald's increase their
    33        turnover and increases their profits.  You said was there
    34        any issue about that in the mind of Mr. Hawkes, and he
    35        said, "No, there is not."
    36
    37        There was a reference on day 41, page 31, line 18, which
    38        I think was from the operations manual, that happy meals
    39        were a very successful programme for McDonald's, they were
    40        targeted at younger children.  It says, "...targeted at our
    41        younger audience which reinforces the theme of our
    42        children's advertising by paying off on the promise that
    43        McDonald's is a fun place to go.  Suggestive selling happy
    44        meals to parents is a very important way to increase
    45        adults' and children's loyalty to this promise."  I don't
    46        know whether that probably should have come in under
    47        gimmicks; gimmicks and McDonald's being a fun place,
    48        promoting the image of McDonald's as a fun place to go.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  At the moment, I don't see gimmicks as any
    51        issue in itself.  It is all just part of the marketing, as
    52        television advertising is; they are all just different
    53        facets of marketing.
    54
    55   MS. STEEL:   Happy meals we see as part of the gimmicks, and
    56        obviously they are heavily promoted.
    57
    58        In terms of the happy meals, on day 42, page 7, line 10,
    59        Mr. Hawkes said that the idea of happy meals is to have the
    60        children visit during that period but also to offer them a

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