Day 025 - 16 Sep 94 - Page 30
1 much improve a case if you just throw in all points, good
2 and bad? Is it better to pick your best points and stick
3 with them?
4 A. Yes, as a rule I would agree absolutely with you. You
5 would prefer to litigate only the ones you felt most
6 certain of.
7
8 Q. Then I would like to turn, if I may, to that letter of
9 24th April. I would like to look at the text on the first
10 page, page 131. I will read the whole of the first page:
11 "The Attorneys General of Texas, California, and New York
12 have concluded our joint review of McDonald's recent
13 advertising campaign which claims that McDonald's food is
14 nutritious. Our mutual conclusion is that this
15 advertising campaign is deceptive. We therefore request
16 that McDonald's immediately cease and desist further use
17 of this advertising campaign.
18
19 The reason for this is simple: McDonald's food is, as a
20 whole, not nutritious." I have asked you about that.
21 I will not come back to it. "The intent and result of the
22 current campaign is to deceive consumers into believing
23 the opposite."
24
25 I am interested only in the word "intent". When you say
26 "intent", do you mean intent to deceive? Do you mean by
27 those words, or did the office of the Attorney General
28 mean by those words a dishonest intent?
29 A. In that instance, I would say it did, yes.
30
31 Q. "Fast food customers often choose to go to McDonald's
32 because it is inexpensive and convenient. They should not
33 be fooled into eating there because you have told them it
34 is also nutritious." The word "fooled" is an ordinary
35 English word. Does it have the same connotation in
36 America, a deliberate attempt to deceive somebody into
37 doing something which otherwise they might not have done?
38 A. Not necessarily, no. People can fool themselves.
39 That would not be necessarily deliberate.
40
41 Q. "McDonald's calculated move", what is a "calculated
42 move"? Does that mean one which has certain consequences
43 or one which is intended to have those consequences?
44 A. One that is taken either knowingly or intentionally;
45 one that is not accidental.
46
47 Q. As a word, it is ambiguous, "calculated". Right? I can
48 calculate the consequences of my actions, can I not, which
49 means that I intend the consequences, does it not?
50 A. No, it does not and, no, it is not ambiguous.
51
52 Q. What I am driving at is, in the context of this letter,
53 does the word "calculated" have a connotation of
54 deliberate mental intention?
55 A. OK.
56
57 Q. I am asking you what is meant by this word here?
58 A. I would say that it does connote in the context of
59 this letter a deliberate act by McDonald's to promote its
60 food as nutritious. I refuse again to go beyond that and
