Day 059 - 01 Dec 94 - Page 67
1 Q. It is "NBC Communications", an extract from the Advertising
2 Standards Authority.
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You want the McDonald's Restaurants one in
5 the middle.
6
7 MR. MORRIS: Yes, the second one.
8 A. Right.
9
10 Q. If I could just read out a bit of it. It has the headline:
11 "Go Green McDonald's and the Environment." I cannot
12 remember what year it was. It has cropped up before. "Why
13 do we continue to use foam cartons when paper could be used
14 instead? Foam packaging is more energy efficient to
15 produce than paper or cardboard in terms of protecting the
16 environment and conserving energy. It is also fully
17 recyclable, unlike paper used with food which is coated
18 with plastic, wax or silicone. Such papers are also not
19 biodegradable. McDonald's prides itself on being an
20 industry leader and a responsible community citizen and its
21 stance on important environmental concerns, such as
22 managing solid waste, is great." Then the advertisement
23 invites readers to write for details "of our recycling
24 programme".
25 A. Yes.
26
27 Q. You use the word "recyclable" to describe your foam
28 packaging in an advertisement and point (B) of the
29 complaint being upheld -- sorry ----
30
31 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Why not just let Mr. Oakley read it for
32 himself. He can then take as much time as he wants to.
33 A. OK.
34
35 MR. MORRIS: My understanding is that the claims about any of
36 your packaging being recyclable in the Advertising
37 Standards Authority opinion, their misleadingness is
38 dependent on whether or not you are doing your own
39 recycling programme which you have advertised that readers
40 could write to you about. They said, effectively, you were
41 not conducting a recycling programme, therefore, you were
42 misleading readers about your materials being recyclable,
43 "If the advertisements themselves were not engaged in
44 recycling material". The question I am going to ask is
45 this. We have seen how this so-called Nottingham
46 experiment, which has been going on for six years?
47 A. '88, yes.
48
49 Q. Six years?
50 A. Not Nottingham.
51
52 Q. Has been used in your national leaflets to customers about
53 recycling, and in an advertisement which was deemed to be
54 misleading. I put it to you that you were using this
55 so-called experiment as a propaganda exercise. Is that
56 right?
57 A. That is not correct. I explained earlier in the
58 leaflet the "Did you know" leaflet it says "the aim" of the
59 scheme was to institute a recycling programme. It did not
60 say we were recycling. As far as the "Go Green" advert is
