Day 037 - 14 Oct 94 - Page 46
1
2 Q. So your concern for gimmickry is not the fact of the
3 gimmickry but what it is being used to promote?
4 A. Quite so.
5
6 Q. Are there any particular concerns about gimmickry in the
7 case of children and nutrition?
8 A. Of course, I do. I believe I refer to this a little
9 later on, Mr. Kroc's autobiography.
10
11 Q. We will come to that in a minute, but any particular
12 concern about gimmickry and children?
13 A. When are you using -- shall we use a slightly less
14 loaded term, perhaps, and say a sales promotional device?
15 Whether it is a clown or a hat or a flag, or whatever else
16 McDonald's are in the habit of using, I think one has to
17 be very careful. It is certainly true that you can do a
18 lot more below the line than you can in terms of
19 gimmickry, sales promotion devices, than you can above the
20 line.
21
22 Q. What do you mean by that?
23 A. Above the line is an advertising term which describes
24 money that is spent mainly on advertising, straightforward
25 media advertising. Below the line is virtually
26 everything, sales promotion, public relations and that
27 sort of miscellaneous expenditure.
28
29 I am concerned that McDonald's do use sales promotion
30 devices to sell to children which they probably could not
31 do if they were using the same sort of device in their
32 advertising, that is, above the line, because there are
33 fairly stringent controls, particularly so far as
34 television advertising is concerned, as to what you can
35 do.
36
37 It is a few years, I must say, since I actually made
38 television advertisements, but I have no reason to think
39 the controls have been relaxed -- in fact, I suspect they
40 have been tightened -- and any advertisement that seeks to
41 influence, shall we say, that sought to influence a
42 child's conduct so that it brought pressure to bear on its
43 parents to behave in a certain way or to purchase a
44 certain product would certainly be radically changed by
45 the authorities who were responsible for previewing and
46 prevetting television advertisements. That is not
47 something -----
48
49 Q. Is that what is referred to as pester power?
50 A. Yes, that is a very good way of putting it actually,
51 yes.
52
53 Q. Are you saying that the gimmickry below the line, as you
54 put it ---
55 A. Yes.
56
57 Q. -- can have that actual effect?
58 A. Yes, absolutely. Anyone who is a parent knows that;
59 "Daddy, take me to McDonald's; I can see the nice clown".
60 It is that sort of reaction that I very much suspect as
