Day 296 - 07 Nov 96 - Page 19


     
     1        claims that McDonald's food is nutritious.  Our mutual
     2        conclusion is that this advertising campaign is deceptive.
     3        We therefore request that McDonald's immediately cease and
     4        desist further use of this advertising campaign.  The
     5        reason for this is simple, McDonald's food is, as a whole,
     6        not nutritious.  The intent and result of the current
     7        campaign is to deceive customers into believing the
     8        opposite.  Fast food customers often choose to go to
     9        McDonald's because it is inexpensive and convenient.  They
    10        should not be fooled into eating there because you have
    11        told them it is also nutritious."  Then it went on to say,
    12        "The new campaign appears it is intended to pull the wool
    13        over the public's eyes".
    14
    15        We say what that opinion expressed in that letter, and
    16        verified by Stephen Gardener, is a useful back up, if any
    17        is needed, to the point that it has got to be reasonable to
    18        say that McDonald's are attempting to deceive the public.
    19        It has got to be a reasonable opinion to hold that
    20        McDonald's are trying to show that their food is nutritious
    21        when the reality is the opposite.
    22
    23        On the point about what the word 'nutritious' means to the
    24        average member of the public, we would agree entirely with
    25        Mr. Gardener, and adopt this as our view and argument; that
    26        to the average consumer the word 'nutritious' conveys a
    27        sense of a healthy product that is not deleterious to one's
    28        physiological well being.  Specifically, a product that is
    29        nutritious is one that does not contain excessive amounts
    30        of nutrients that should be avoided such as fats, sodium
    31        and the like, sugar.  We would say 'the like' refers to
    32        sugar.  Also, we would add that it does contain useful
    33        amounts of vitamins and minerals on top of that, and
    34        fibre.  Again, the overall position being:  is the food
    35        making a positive or a negative contribution to the diet
    36        overall, and to a healthy diet?
    37
    38        Just a final point.  I forgot to mention the evidence of
    39        Dr. Tim Lobstein, the co-director of the Food Commission,
    40        who stated that he had studied eight suggested typical
    41        McDonald's meal combinations, which are found in the back
    42        of that same pamphlet, 'Good Food Nutrition and
    43        McDonald's', so they are combinations suggested by the
    44        company.  He concluded that they are generally imbalanced
    45        with regard to their nutrient content.  He said that they
    46        were excessively fatty and salty, and correspondingly low
    47        in nutrient density, and that related to several of the
    48        essential vitamins and minerals.
    49
    50        He said that the McDonald's line in their various nutrition
    51        guides and publications that they put out, that their food
    52        can be eaten as part of a balanced diet, is meaningless.
    53        Because, as he said, you could eat a roll of Sellotape as
    54        part of a balanced diet.
    55
    56   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Well, I am not sure I enjoyed his analogy,
    57        but I took the point he was trying to make.
    58
    59   MS. STEEL:   I don't suppose anybody would particularly want to
    60        eat a roll of Sellotape, but...   You could eat a handful

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