Day 298 - 11 Nov 96 - Page 27
1 leaflet states that McDonald's "produces food which is
2 unhealthy". And we would say clearly their food is
3 unhealthy by any definition that would be acceptable either
4 to the public or to the scientific community. Even their
5 own customers recognise that.
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
8
9 MS. STEEL: That is all I was going to cover on those for now,
10 although I might raise some more points on that in the
11 advertising section.
12
13 I am not sure to what extent these figures are helpful, but
14 in tab 4, AF4, there are the figures -- this is the survey
15 of who eats what at McDonald's, and on the fifth page there
16 is an average profile summary chart. Under buying
17 behaviour, it says that 68 percent of customers regularly
18 buy french fries, 41 regularly buy Big Macs, 32 percent
19 regularly buy milkshakes, and 31 percent regularly buy
20 cheeseburgers.
21
22 The other figures for other menu items, I think you can get
23 them from the brackets when comparing them to the -- there
24 are all the other pages about people, for example,
25 cheeseburger purchasers, the sort of thing that they
26 normally buy. And then the figures in brackets after that
27 are the averages. So, for example, on page 11 we would get
28 that 14 percent of people regularly buy Quarter Pounders
29 and 21 percent regularly buy Chicken McNuggets.
30
31 I just think the point is that some of those figures may be
32 useful, just on the same point about whether or not people
33 are just going in there for a cup of tea or an orange juice
34 or whether they are going in for something more
35 substantial. I will not go into that in any great detail.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Are there figures there for something like
38 Coke?
39
40 MS. STEEL: It has got soft drink, which is 46 percent.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It does not state specifically, for
43 instance, Coke or Diet Coke?
44
45 MS. STEEL: No, it has just got soft drinks. But that is split
46 from the milkshakes, which are 32 percent.
47
48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
49
50 MS. STEEL: So the vast majority of their customers are buying
51 french fries with whatever else it is that they are
52 buying. I don't really know how useful those figures are
53 but.....
54
55 In tab 3, I think it is, there are the figures which were
56 compiled by Mr. Fairgrieve with reference to the Taylor
57 Nelson survey and the fast track survey, which stated that
58 4 percent of the customers were eating at McDonald's
59 several times a week and 11 percent eating there once a
60 week.
