Day 003 - 30 Jun 94 - Page 16
1 "No".
2 Q. Only then one remaining question on this column: It says
that nearly all your advertising is aimed at children. Is
3 that true or false?
A. It is not true.
4
Q. Have you a rough idea as to the proportion?
5 A. Something 20, 20 per cent, 25 per cent, no more than.
6 Q. I am going to leap ahead of myself so that I need not come
back to it, Mr. Preston, if I may for the moment. It has
7 been suggested that at some stage -- it is not said where
or to whom -- you, and I put the words in inverted commas,
8 "admitted" that the majority of McDonald's television
advertisements went out in the afternoon. Is that true or
9 false?
A. I do not think I ever said that. In fact, it has
10 never been the case. I do not why I would say something
like that. It has never been true.
11
Q. Is there a time of the day, towards the evening or in the
12 evening, when it may be expected that both parents and
children will be watching the same television?
13 A. Oh yes.
14 Q. Is that called the cross-over time?
A. Cross-over time.
15
Q. Do you advertise during that period?
16 A. We do.
17 Q. What is your expectation of, as it were, attracting
customers when children are watching your advertisements
18 with their parents?
A. I would think there is a parental influence over what
19 is or is not done following the viewing of an ad.
20 Q. If we can cross over to the next column, the right hand
column, on the fourth page under the heading: "Toy
21 Food". I am going to ignore the first of those
paragraphs, but I would read the second:
22
"Not a lot of children are interested in nutrition, and
23 even if they were, all the gimmicks and routines with
paper hats and straws and balloons hide the fact that the
24 food they're seduced into eating is at best mediocre, at
worst poisonous", I will leave the last part for the
25 moment. Do you know of any evidence, Mr. Preston, that
your food is poisonous to children?
26 A. No.
27 Q. Leaving aside for the moment one incident in Preston in
Lancashire in January 1991, do you know of any case in
28 which anybody has suffered food poisoning in this country
as a result of having eaten your food?
29 A. No.
30 Q. Then we can jump "Ronald's dirty secret" and go down,
please, to the next one: "In what way are McDonald's
