Day 299 - 13 Nov 96 - Page 35
1 all say that they only get about halfway through the food
2 before getting bored with it and they are more interested
3 in the toys. But, I mean, the point is not what -- they
4 might, you know, yes, they might want to eat the food when
5 they get there, but the point is that the advertising is
6 deceptive, because the real purpose of the advertising is
7 to get them or their parents to buy the food, but that is
8 not what is being portrayed in the advertisements. What is
9 being portrayed in the advertisements is having, you know,
10 a great fun time with all these cartoon food characters.
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I understand that, but whether it is
13 realistic to say once they have been the first time that
14 they do not have the taste of food in mind is -----
15
16 MS. STEEL: I think if that was true, then McDonald's would not
17 need to advertise to children, because once they had been
18 once, the children would just keep saying they wanted to go
19 there. The reality is that McDonald's continually
20 advertises, it advertises more than three-quarters of the
21 weeks in the year, and it is clear that the food is not
22 that great, because otherwise, you know, that level of
23 advertising would not be necessary, they would just come
24 back of their own accord.
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Your point about the advertising may well be
27 right, but what you have just said may be a bridge too far
28 for me. One knows that children's memories are extremely
29 short, but when they are prompted, they are extremely
30 good. And what it seems to me is, although you may not
31 like the idea, they do actually like this fatty, salty,
32 sugary, very palatable food. They forget about it unless
33 they see it on an ad, and when they see it on the ad, the
34 taste all just comes rushing back. And, for better or
35 worse, what comes rushing back is the pleasant memory of
36 how it tasted and how much better it would be than the
37 sprouts their mother would give them.
38
39 MS. STEEL: I am not saying that they dislike the food.
40 However, I do think it is the case that they would not be
41 so keen on eating it so frequently if McDonald's were not
42 continually bombarding them with advertising and dressing
43 the food up as being, you know, come to McDonald's for a
44 fun experience.
45
46 MR. MORRIS: I think we have to see it as a kind of package.
47 On the one hand you have the advertising, in the store you
48 have the gimmickry. The advertising has messages about the
49 food but not actually telling you about the food, but the
50 characters. So kids associate eating the food as a fun
51 event because they are thinking of the characters. They
52 like, as you say, the fat, salt and sugar content. So the
53 whole thing is like a package. You cannot say it is just
54 the advertising, it is not just the addition of the
55 ingredients -----
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not draw any exception with this. It
58 is just the suggestion that in the mind of the child the
59 object of going to McDonald's is to play with these little
60 food characters. I was checking whether Ms. Steel was
