Day 299 - 13 Nov 96 - Page 14
1 it would be considered to be unacceptable that people would
2 view it as unethical to use cartoon characters to sell junk
3 food to children in order for the company to increase its
4 profits. I think both Mr. Preston and John Hawkes admitted
5 that Ronald was a useful marketing tool.
6
7 And then we had the extracts from the confidential
8 operations manual, which really gave quite a good insight
9 into McDonald's strategy. That stated that children are
10 often the key decision-makers concerning where a family
11 goes to eat and that offering toys was one of the best
12 things to make children loyal supporters, that birthday
13 parties were an important way to generate added on sales
14 and profits.
15
16 And then there was the section about ronald mcdonald which
17 gave the original quote that ronald mcdonald is a strong
18 marketing tool, that Ronald loves McDonald's and McDonald's
19 food and so do children because they love Ronald.
20 Remember, children exert a phenomenal influence when it
21 comes to restaurant selection; that means that you should
22 do everything you can to appeal to children's love for
23 Ronald and McDonald's. And the phenomenal influence
24 reference there is a clear reference to the use of pester
25 power, children pestering their parents to take them to
26 McDonald's.
27
28 We consider as well that the phrase "you should do
29 everything you can to appeal to children's love for Ronald
30 and McDonald's" is again manipulation of children's
31 emotions, exploitation of children, that it is extremely
32 sinister.
33
34 And further on that point, we think that the evidence from
35 the Civil Evidence Act statement of Geoffrey Juliano, a
36 former ronald mcdonald actor during the 1980s, is worth
37 taking into consideration on this point. This is a person
38 who spent years promoting McDonald's food, persuading
39 children to go to McDonald's, and when he quit he publicly
40 apologised and stated: I brainwashed youngsters into doing
41 wrong. I want to say sorry to children everywhere for
42 selling out to concerns who make millions by murdering
43 animals.
44
45 It is clear that his view is that the use of Ronald
46 McDonald is effectively a brainwashing technique, the way
47 ronald mcdonald is used.
48
49 Still on the same point, really, that the golden arches
50 code, McDonald's internal code for their advertisements,
51 does state that one of their aims was to make people feel a
52 warm empathy towards the commercial and therefore feel an
53 empathy towards the company. Again, this is manipulation
54 of people's emotions, although Mr. Green denied that,
55 denied it was a manipulation of people's emotions. Well,
56 that is his opinion. Because he also denied brainwashing
57 children with ronald mcdonald or having a hidden agenda in
58 the use of Ronald, and yet from the company's own
59 operations manual we can see that the company does have a
60 hidden agenda with their use of Ronald.
