Day 012 - 18 Jul 94 - Page 22
1 Q. First of all, I would like to ask you, who are
Golin/Harris Communications Inc.?
2 A. They are an outside communications agency that does
work for McDonald's.
3
Q. Are they owned by McDonald's?
4 A. No, they are not.
5 Q. The memorandum is addressed to a lady called Stephanie
Skurdy. Is she a McDonald's person?
6 A. Yes, she is.
7 Q. What about Al Smedley?
A. He was an employee of Golin Harris.
8
Q. So it is the publicity agents writing to the company, is
9 that right?
A. To the communications, one of the communications
10 public relations people at McDonald's.
11 Q. The memo is dated March 18th 1986?
A. That is correct.
12
Q. Mr. Smedley writes: "These are key points we discussed at
13 our meeting on Monday". I will not trouble you with
anything on the first page. I would like to ask you about
14 the next page, page 185, the paragraph marked 4 in the
margin. Do you have that?
15 A. Yes, I do.
16 Q. Mr. Smedley writes: "The initial position, we all seemed
to agree that, if possible, McDonald's should attempt to
17 deflect the basic ... thrust of our critics by creating a
scenario where we take the high road? How do we do this?
18 By talking 'moderation and balance'. We cannot at this
stage of the situation really address or defend
19 nutrition. We do not sell nutrition and people do not
come to McDonald's for nutrition. Rather than fight a
20 defensive war of nutrition by responding to constant
nutritional attacks let us not even deal with it. ...
21 suggests let us try to develop a broad umbrella position
where we incorporate the following points". I will come
22 to those in a moment.
23 Mr. Horwitz, were you concerned, you personally concerned,
in these discussions about what the campaign should
24 attempt to achieve?
A. Generally, yes.
25
Q. Do you know what Mr. Smedley means when he says: "We do
26 not sell nutrition. People do not come to McDonald's for
nutrition", or when he says: "We cannot really address or
27 defend nutrition". Do you know what he is talking about?
A. Yes, the answer is, yes; it was my belief that he was
28 saying we just had not set the proper stage to address all
of these issues at this point in time. Once again I point
29 out this was written in March 1986 prior to the
distribution of our brochures and advertisement.
30
Q. They did not actually hit the market until January 1987,
