Day 024 - 15 Sep 94 - Page 29
1
2 Q. What did you understand that to mean, "not be able to
3 spell out the company's plans"?
4 A. That they had not made up their mind. I presume that
5 they were not already in possession of a final conclusion
6 and just stalling on us. I presumed -- I know otherwise
7 now -- but I presumed then that they needed more time. It
8 is not unknown for a company the size of McDonald's, when
9 you are dealing with not even the general counsel and
10 generally speaking with outside counsel, to need to
11 consult with management officials, and that can take some
12 time to do so. We presumed they legitimately needed more
13 time to make that final call as to whether or not they
14 would reach agreement with us.
15
16 We believed, when we heard from them, as they predicted
17 after July 4th holiday, that they had, indeed, received
18 that permission and were, indeed, making that agreement.
19
20 Q. Because of these telephone conversations did you hold up
21 developing a co-ordinated national announcement with the
22 other fast food companies?
23 A. To the degree I can recall at this point, yes. The
24 companies did desire to know when we were going to say
25 something publicly about it. I obtained the permission of
26 the Attorney General for us to hold off until we had
27 everyone within the fold; everyone had reached agreement.
28
29 Q. If we go to volume VI A, tab 39, we have a memo from
30 McDonald's dated July 3rd 1986 from Tom Dentice: "To:
31 All owner/operators, zone/regional/district managers,
32 regional operations/marketing personnel, all officers.
33 Subject: National Distribution of McDonald's Ingredient
34 Brochures". You were not aware of this memo?
35 A. I was not then; I believe I have only seen it as part
36 of this law suit.
37
38 Q. I will just read a bit of it out and then ask for your
39 response having heard that. "This is to advise you that
40 on Monday, July 7, we will announce to the media that
41 ingredient information brochures will be available at all
42 U.S. McDonald's restaurants, effective August 15, 1986.
43
44 By way of background ... as you know, the enclosed
45 brochure ... was developed for use in our New York state
46 restaurants" -- called 'McDonald's Food: The Facts',
47 sorry -- "'Pre-market' copy testing and initial in-store
48 customer reaction has been positive -- customers feel good
49 about our making this information available." This is an
50 important sentence, "As a result of this customer
51 response, and because of the increasing attention being
52 given to the area of ingredient disclosure by state and
53 federal legislators, and the media, we feel this national
54 announcement is both timely and appropriate."
55
56 Then it says they are going to send out a hundred copies
57 of the brochure to all their stores by August 15th. If we
58 just go down to the paragraph starting, "These materials",
59 this is the important paragraph: "These materials, as
60 well as additional copies of the ingredient brochure,
