Day 025 - 16 Sep 94 - Page 44


     
     1        letter of 24th April, would it not?
     2        A.  I believe that the three specific allegations were
     3        based on primarily claims that were made in the second
     4        page of the two page ads, but if you will permit me, let
     5        me check that.
     6
     7   Q.   Yes, please do.
     8        A.  Yes.
     9
    10   Q.   In each case your specific complaint was about some of the
    11        material contained in the second page, was it not?
    12        A.  Yes.
    13
    14   Q.   I would like to you pick up the coloured mock-up thing
    15        with "Time" on the front and open the front cover at the
    16        page, for you it is probably the left-hand page:
    17        "Advertising Breaks Jan. 18th".
    18        A.  I am there.
    19
    20   Q.   You have got there have you?  Page 101, my Lord, at tab
    21        33.  At the top it says -- we have had this before -- "It
    22        is time Americans were told about McDonald's food quality
    23        and its nutritional value.  This advertising program is
    24        designed to get the facts out, and to neutralise the junk
    25        food misconceptions about McDonald's good food.  This
    26        effort represents a long term commitment beginning with a
    27        year-long advertising schedule in 1987".
    28
    29        Can you then go down to the very last paragraph on that
    30        page, remembering this appeared in December 1986, we see
    31        this:  "The ads will first appear in the other consumer
    32        magazines in either February or March.  The first
    33        insertion in each book will be a two-page ad.  Future
    34        insertions will include the first page only."   Do you see
    35        that?
    36        A.  I do.
    37
    38   Q.   It follows from that, as night follows day, does it not,
    39        Mr. Gardner, that the removal of those second pages from
    40        the published advertisements in American magazines had
    41        nothing whatever to do with your intervention?
    42        A.  No, sir, it does not.
    43
    44   Q.   Why?
    45        A.  Two reasons:  It is not unheard of for companies to
    46        misrepresent their plans to their suppliers or to their
    47        franchisees, in this case, for a number of reasons.
    48        I will not suppose that has happened here but it is a
    49        possibility and therefore -----
    50 
    51   Q.   Are you going to suggest it as a positive assertion? 
    52        A.  I am just going to suggest because that possibility 
    53        exists; it does not follow as night follows day.
    54        Secondly, plans change.  We do not know, this that you are
    55        showing me, I do not recall having seen before.  Certainly
    56        McDonald's did not point that out to us in any of their
    57        responses, nor did they provide us with the insertion data
    58        for January, February, March or April or subsequent, so
    59        that we could determine whether, in fact, that was the
    60        truth at the time.

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