Day 299 - 13 Nov 96 - Page 20


     
     1        evidence on this subject and who we had a statement for.
     2        Well, I do not think we have got any explanation for that,
     3        but I just think it is indicative of the fact that
     4        McDonald's seems to be afraid to call any witnesses who
     5        they do not have under their control any more, who are no
     6        longer employed by the company, basically because they are
     7        worried that they might come out with the truth and that
     8        that is far more likely, seeing as, you know, they are not
     9        going to be in fear of losing their jobs if they say the
    10        wrong thing, losing their source of income, which obviously
    11        relates to what weight should be given to McDonald's
    12        witnesses, bearing in mind that they are all dependent, or
    13        were virtually all dependent on the company for their
    14        income.
    15
    16        Mr. Hawkes said that McDonald's spends around 5 percent  of
    17        turnover year by year on advertising in the UK, although
    18        -----
    19
    20   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have not actually got the reference but
    21        I have found my note.  I think it amounts to the same
    22        thing, about the -- I have not got that Mr. Hawkes said
    23        that they did not target the eight to 15 year olds as much
    24        as the two to eights as they did not pester parents, but
    25        I think it is the same point probably, that he said that
    26        the point of advertising to the ronald mcdonald age group
    27        was to put over that McDonald's was a fun place which they
    28        would wish to visit so that when the family proposed to eat
    29        out the child will ask to go to McDonald's; McDonald's
    30        hoped the child would influence the choice of restaurant
    31        which the parent selected within the fast food category.
    32
    33        And then I think it is this bit that you have in mind; the
    34        purpose of advertising to children through Ronald was to
    35        get young children who did not come to McDonald's by
    36        themselves to talk to their parents to encourage them to
    37        bring them into McDonald's.
    38
    39   MS. STEEL:   There are various references actually to pester
    40        power.
    41
    42   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That may be a composite of them.
    43
    44   MS. STEEL:   I will be coming on to that anyway.  But whilst Mr.
    45        Hawkes originally said that McDonald's spend around 5
    46        percent of turnover on advertising in the UK each year, he
    47        did later admit that you should add another 1 percent to
    48        that, which was from the local stores.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.
    51
    52   MS. STEEL:   There was what I would call a pretty idiotic
    53        comparison during examination-in-chief with what percentage
    54        of turnover other industries use for advertisements, and
    55        Mr. Hawkes had said that he thought that they would be
    56        average and maybe slightly below average in terms of the
    57        total percentage of money that they spent on advertising.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   I will hear anything you want to say about
    60        that and anything Mr. Rampton wants to say, but at the

Prev Next Index