Day 258 - 07 Jun 96 - Page 20
1 664 "media relations": "What to do when the press calls".
2 It say about 'free news media can be an excellent
3 opportunity for McDonald's', et cetera. We have already
4 dealt with that. "If your store is involved in a community
5 event, a fund raiser, or some other charitable activity
6 covered by the news media, coverage by the news media can
7 give your store added attention and help build your image
8 as a concerned citizen". So it is not just to publicise
9 the existence of the store, or your products, it is also to
10 publicise the image that you want to portray of the company
11 being a concerned and caring company?
12 A. It is more than to project the image. For it to work
13 effectively you genuinely have to effect that within the
14 community to optimise the sales potential. You know, it is
15 not easy to fool people. We have to do these things
16 genuinely to make them work for you.
17
18 Q. Right. I think that is all on that. Helen has a couple of
19 questions, but can I formally ask the Plaintiffs through
20 the court that pages 659 to 661, I do not know if they are
21 in the old, can I just check--
22
23 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, they are at pages 153 following in tab
24 10.
25
26 MR. MORRIS: I think, actually, these are pages that we have
27 already gone through previously.
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have underlined the bit on ronald mcdonald
30 personal appearances.
31
32 MR. MORRIS: I do not need to ask about that, then.
33
34 MS. STEEL: Can I just ask, in the same way as you do with the
35 orange bowls, ronald mcdonald goes to fetes and things like
36 that, does he not, and gives out sweets and flags?
37 A. Again, I have no current working knowledge of the
38 ronald mcdonald programme, but the way it is operated in
39 the UK is you have the visits every restaurant once a year,
40 goes to a local fete, if appropriate, never personally
41 hands out sweets or flags, or anything else for that
42 matter, appears at a number of large events, maybe it is
43 the seaside, maybe it is -- I do not know -- other events;
44 but the programme in the UK is still, to my knowledge,
45 organised mainly as a restaurant visit programme. The
46 typical flow of one of those is, he visits the restaurant
47 in the morning, does a magic show in the restaurant, goes
48 to the local hospital, says hello to the children who are
49 at the hospital, comes backs to the restaurant, does a
50 magic show in the afternoon. I think that is still the
51 current format visit.
52
53 Q. Right. The hospital visits -- I mean, we heard, I think,
54 from Mr. Preston, about bicycle safety things, or
55 something; they would all be part of the same thing, the
56 same purpose, to increase brand awareness and sales?
57 A. Quite simply, the idea of having a personal appearance
58 programme for ronald mcdonald is to bring the McDonald's
59 experience as seen in the advertising fully alive in the
60 restaurant with a physical realisation of the character and
