Day 042 - 31 Oct 94 - Page 40
1 MR. MORRIS: Just one thing before we continue: the Plaintiffs
2 had indicated that the only matter of issue was the link
3 between the advertising and the quality of the food of
4 McDonald's. Point (J) in the Statement of Claim has no
5 reference to food quality in relation to adverts. We want
6 to know if the Plaintiffs are still pursuing point (J) or
7 whether they want to withdraw it.
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Although Mr. Rampton said it was the only
10 point, I thought that, under this head, the alleged
11 meanings you ought to be concerned about are (I), because,
12 if my recollection is correct, gimmicks comes into this, or
13 I had understood it did, under the "toy/food" section of
14 the leaflet, under "how McDonald's deliberately exploit
15 children". We have an introductory paragraph; and then the
16 "normality trap" and then "toy/food".
17
18 I thought we were concerned with (J), which is the
19 normality trap encouraged by advertising, and (K), it has
20 some extra detail, like "as a fun event", but promoting the
21 consumption of meals at McDonald's, when they know full
22 well that the contents could poison the children who eat
23 them.
24
25 If we turn to your tab 4, just using the extract for the
26 moment, there is no harm in saying that, for the purpose of
27 my making my own notes, I called the first paragraph "A",
28 which is the appeal of the advertisements and
29 ronald mcdonald. You say there that most television
30 commercials went out in the afternoon, or that that has
31 been acknowledged, and the first sentence under "how
32 McDonald's deliberately exploit children", that starts:
33 "Nearly all McDonald's advertising is aimed at children."
34 (B) is the next paragraph which is underlined, which is
35 what I will call "the normality trap". (C) is what I just,
36 as an abbreviation , will call "pester power". (D), at the
37 bottom of the page, is "challenge by relevant
38 authorities". The 1986, I have called "E", for my
39 purposes; October 1989, "F"; UK November 1990 "G"; UK April
40 1991 "H"; April 1990 "I"; February 1990, "J"; and then
41 back. When I give these letters, this is just how I have
42 broken up the allegations. "K" is something attributed to
43 Mr. Preston in December 1985; again, that is back to most
44 television commercials going out in the afternoon. Then
45 pester power, in the last two lines: "Pressure from the
46 kids which brought their parents into our restaurants."
47 Then I have given "L" to Geoffrey Juliano.
48
49 If you turn over the page, paragraph (E), which I termed
50 into my "M" , were the gimmicks to cover low food quality.
51 There is more there. Then (F), which I have turned into my
52 paragraph "N" is the ronald mcdonald. It has a number of
53 allegations in it: the ronald mcdonald personality,
54 leading to what I have called "the normality trap"; then
55 pester power; the pull of advertising taking precedence
56 over children's advertising, the cost to their parents, and
57 nutritional value of the food, encouraging over-eating of
58 junk food, leading to an unbalanced diet; then the
59 allegations against the food, that it is, at best,
60 mediocre,, at worst, can be poisonous, in that it is high
