Day 042 - 31 Oct 94 - Page 21
1 Q. Do you want to explain why, then?
2 A. Well----
3
4 Q. Why those characters are used?
5 A. It just allows you to have different characters to
6 create different story lines and different excitement in
7 the commercials, to keep the thing fresh and different. It
8 gives a personality. They all have different personalities
9 and characters that children can relate to.
10
11 Q. Has any of the feedback that you have got from adults about
12 the effect of the advertisements affected how new
13 commercials are made, or what they contain?
14 A. Yes. There has been a couple of occasions where we
15 have had, either through people writing in various comments
16 about commercials that we take on board, as it were, just
17 to improve the direction of feature advertising.
18
19 Q. What sorts of things?
20 A. It may be that something in a particular commercial
21 they feel is not what they would have come to expect from
22 McDonald's. There was one commercial I can give you an
23 example of, where Ronald is playing in a rock band, playing
24 an electric guitar. They felt that it was not as
25 appropriate as Ronald in a sort of more fantasy land; it
26 was a bit too real, maybe a bit too old.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Would it be convenient if we broke off
29 there?
30
31 MS. STEEL: Yes.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will have a five-minute break.
34
35 (Short adjournment)
36
37 MS. STEEL: When a television advert is made, is there a set
38 length of time it is shown for?
39 A. It can vary in this country. You can buy standard time
40 lengths. So you can buy-----
41
42 Q. Do you mean in terms of how long the advertisement lasts?
43 A. Yes.
44
45 Q. One showing? There are quite a lot of different times
46 involved, are you saying?
47 A. You can make a 20 second commercial, or a 30 second
48 commercial, or 60 second commercial, and you can run that
49 on television as much as you wish, depending on your
50 finances.
51
52 MS. STEEL: Right. (Pause)
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What are you directing yourself at now?
55
56 MS. STEEL: If a 30 second advertisement is made, how long,
57 generally -- how many weeks, months, whatever -- would it
58 be used for before you made a new one?
59 A. That depends totally on what you are showing in that
60 commercial and what audience it may be aimed at.
