Day 300 - 14 Nov 96 - Page 29
1 called free speech. What we are talking about is what
2 I would consider the good manners of an advertisement. We
3 are not saying that other people should not express that
4 view."
5
6 Obviously, that is exactly the view that is being expressed
7 in the London Greenpeace fact sheet which McDonald's are
8 suing us over. So their own witness thinks it perfectly
9 reasonable for us to express the view that it is a negative
10 thing, that it is a bad thing for people to be advertising
11 to children with the effect that the children then go and
12 pester their parents or nag their parents. That was all on
13 day 47, pages 39 and 40. I can't remember whether I have
14 already given a reference or not.
15
16 Mr. Miles said that if an advertising campaign undermined
17 loyalty to parents it would be something to take
18 seriously. Well, it was something that the ITC would take
19 seriously. That was on day 47, page 56 line 37.
20
21 Mr. Miles was referred to the operations manual about
22 Ronald loving McDonald's and encouraging children to love
23 McDonald's, and encouraging children to feel a loyalty to
24 ronald mcdonald and McDonald's, and on day 47, page 58 he
25 was read the quote, "'Ronald loves McDonald's and
26 McDonald's food, and so do children because they love
27 Ronald." Question, "Are they not saying it is important
28 to generate love for that character because then the
29 children will buy the food because the character likes the
30 food? In other words, because of their loyalty to the
31 character, they would be loyal to the food sold by the
32 company." Mr. Miles said, "I think that they are saying
33 something like that, but they are saying it to their
34 franchisee, they are not saying this in an advertisement".
35 And that if an advertisement started to talk about love for
36 a character or love for a product, Mr. Miles said he would
37 have thought that that would be over the top.
38
39 So the point is that here are McDonald's encouraging their
40 franchisees to act in a manner which even McDonald's own
41 witness would consider to be over the top if it was done in
42 a more overt and public way. Obviously, the operations
43 manual does not just go to franchisees, it does mention
44 employees. It goes to the store managers, it goes to all
45 stores throughout the world.
46
47 Mr. Miles confirmed that in Sweden the use of cartoon
48 characters to promote food was restricted -- that was in
49 advertising, that was day 50, page 34 -- and that some
50 countries banned the use of toys in promotional
51 activities. That was day 50, page 33.
52
53 The other thing about Mr. Miles saying that he thought
54 McDonald's ads were OK, apart from the fact that,
55 obviously, he is working for a trade association which
56 represents the interests of companies like McDonald's, he
57 also accepted that many of the ITC regulations were open to
58 interpretation. That was day 47, page 35, line 22.
59
60 Can I just mention that Mr. Miles actually said that he was
