Day 299 - 13 Nov 96 - Page 18
1 to those characters and thereby exploit their emotions.
2 And that was actually supposed to be against the ITC's,
3 Independent Television Commission's advertising code, but
4 obviously it appeared that they were only enforcing the
5 letter rather than the spirit of that code.
6
7 She said that sections of the operations manual appeared to
8 be a direct exhortation to managers to use children's
9 emotions and particularly their love for ronald mcdonald to
10 bring them into the store, which she said she did not
11 consider was ethical. Obviously, neither do we.
12
13 She also criticised McDonald's misleading attempts to
14 associate its products with health and fitness and sport,
15 and she was also concerned about the underlying promotional
16 message in McDonald's links with schools, dentists, et
17 cetera, and in their increasing sponsorship activity. She
18 said that whilst it appeared to be altruistic, it was
19 advertising in a covert way. Obviously, we would agree
20 with all of that. The first part relates to McDonald's
21 promotion of their food as something good, as nutritious
22 and healthy, whereas the reality is the opposite.
23
24 Just on the subject of so-called charitable activities,
25 Mr. Fairgrieve was asked about the provision of free or
26 cheap orange squash for local events such as school fetes,
27 which the company portrays as a community-minded gesture.
28 We say that the corporation's operations manual reveals the
29 true purpose of this orange bowl programme. The operations
30 manual states that the orange bowl programme builds
31 goodwill.
32
33 It goes on to say that if your orange bowl does not have a
34 McDonald's logo and your restaurant address on it, then you
35 are losing the opportunities to market your store. It also
36 says: Do not miss any opportunity to publicise the
37 donation of the orange bowl by McDonald's. It is clear
38 that this is an advertising technique used by the company
39 and a large part of or -- well, I mean, the operations
40 manual is specifically referring to school fetes, so a
41 large part of that would be advertising to children.
42
43 Mr. Fairgrieve actually stated that the orange bowl
44 programme inherently creates publicity, that if you have
45 200 people at a local fete and they see McDonald's helping
46 at the local fete, that is inherent publicity.
47
48 Also, in the operations manual was the statement that much
49 of what we, i.e., McDonald's, do in our community should be
50 recognised. To increase the awareness of McDonald's
51 community activities, the media is an important resource.
52 Contact the media when sponsoring school programmes,
53 fund-raising or other community events. And that again is
54 a clear indication of the true purpose of these so-called
55 charitable activities.
56
57 Also, in terms of going into schools, Mr. Fairgrieve was
58 asked about the section in the McDonald's UK annual review
59 which was entitled "Growing up Together", and it stated
60 that McDonald's involvement with schools in the past has
