Day 299 - 13 Nov 96 - Page 33
1 get children to pester their parents.
2
3 The quote that you were asking about earlier; it was on day
4 41, page 58, line 45, when Mr. Morris was questioning Mr.
5 Hawkes, and he said that they did not do much advertising
6 aimed at eight to 15 year-olds. Mr. Morris was questioning
7 him about why that was. At one point he said, and this was
8 round about line 60 on the same page: "At that age they do
9 not pester their parents to go to McDonald's. It does not
10 work in the same way. They are not as brand loyal as the
11 earlier age group can be or the later age group can be."
12
13 On day 42, page 26, line 19, Mr. Hawkes said that,
14 obviously, the Ronald advertising was designed to appeal to
15 children and therefore appeal to them to go to McDonald's,
16 and that was the reason that they did the advertising. He
17 said at line 31 that it was to get their parents to buy
18 them food. And it was shortly after that that he said
19 McDonald's would not be happy if their stores would be
20 filled with children and their parents who had come along
21 for the experience but were not buying food. That was line
22 38 on the same page.
23
24 There was a useful summary which you actually provided on
25 day 42, page 37, starting at line 24, which Mr. Hawkes
26 agreed with, which was that the McDonald's experience is
27 attractive, not just the food but the whole business of
28 going into McDonald's is a treat and fun, that makes
29 children want to go to McDonald's, and that leads to them
30 attempting to persuade their parents to take them to
31 McDonald's. That means when they go there McDonald's sell
32 food, and that means that McDonald's increase their
33 turnover and increases their profits. You said was there
34 any issue about that in the mind of Mr. Hawkes, and he
35 said, "No, there is not."
36
37 There was a reference on day 41, page 31, line 18, which
38 I think was from the operations manual, that happy meals
39 were a very successful programme for McDonald's, they were
40 targeted at younger children. It says, "...targeted at our
41 younger audience which reinforces the theme of our
42 children's advertising by paying off on the promise that
43 McDonald's is a fun place to go. Suggestive selling happy
44 meals to parents is a very important way to increase
45 adults' and children's loyalty to this promise." I don't
46 know whether that probably should have come in under
47 gimmicks; gimmicks and McDonald's being a fun place,
48 promoting the image of McDonald's as a fun place to go.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: At the moment, I don't see gimmicks as any
51 issue in itself. It is all just part of the marketing, as
52 television advertising is; they are all just different
53 facets of marketing.
54
55 MS. STEEL: Happy meals we see as part of the gimmicks, and
56 obviously they are heavily promoted.
57
58 In terms of the happy meals, on day 42, page 7, line 10,
59 Mr. Hawkes said that the idea of happy meals is to have the
60 children visit during that period but also to offer them a
