Day 299 - 13 Nov 96 - Page 11


     
     1        The third question is:  do McDonald's use advertising and
     2        gimmicks which have the effect of making children
     3        pressurise their parents into taking them to McDonald's,
     4        and are McDonald's aware of that?  We would say quite
     5        clearly they are aware of that, because -- well, Mr. Hawks
     6        for one admitted it in the witness box.  He was in charge
     7        of McDonald's advertising in this country.
     8
     9        Then the fourth question is really about the inadequacy of
    10        the meals, and I have been through this, but just briefly,
    11        that whether or not if the comment was about the meals
    12        being bland then that would be a matter of opinion or
    13        comment.  If it was about the nutritional value of the
    14        food, then we have already covered that and proven that
    15        through the nutrition section of the case.  And if it is
    16        about -- well, the same with poisonous, in terms of
    17        nutritional value or -- well, no, under terms of poisonous,
    18        the degenerative diseases effect which obviously is already
    19        covered by the nutrition section of the case and we
    20        consider has already been proved; that it is reasonable
    21        that if you are running a very real risk of, or if there is
    22        a very real risk from that type of diet, that it is fair to
    23        say that it could be termed as poisonous in the long term.
    24
    25        Then, the section about food poisoning, if it refers to
    26        food poisoning or if it was taken to refer to food
    27        poisoning, that has been covered already in the food
    28        poisoning section and admitted incidents admitted by
    29        McDonald's in any event.
    30
    31        So, really we do not particularly need to go into 4, I
    32        don't think, because it is covered by other issues.
    33
    34   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   For 4, refer to what has been said in
    35        relation to nutrition and food poisoning?
    36
    37   MS. STEEL:   Yes.  I mean, I might add a few extra bits in terms
    38        of what Miss Gibbs said when she was giving evidence, but I
    39        will probably stay off that point in the main.
    40
    41   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.
    42
    43   MS. STEEL:   To just go through some of the general evidence
    44        about advertising, before I get into specific parts,
    45        (Pause) Just with reference to the fact that in this
    46        section of the leaflet it talks about parents feeling
    47        pressurised to give in to McDonald's basically because of
    48        the gimmickry and advertising, and it talks about people
    49        trying to avoid junk food, and just that that refers back
    50        really to the section in the nutrition section of the
    51        leaflet about fast equals junk where it says that even if
    52        they like eating them most people recognise that processed
    53        burgers and synthetic chips served up in plastic containers
    54        is junk food.
    55
    56        So, obviously, the paper and plastic containers is part of
    57        the gimmickry which we have heard about the design of
    58        bright packaging to make it look attractive.  Also, that is
    59        a description of what people generally would term junk food
    60        or, you know, mediocre, or whatever -- low quality.

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