Day 042 - 31 Oct 94 - Page 42


     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  I treated the "mediocre" as going a bit
     2        further than that.
     3
     4   MR. RAMPTON:  Maybe.
     5
     6   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  All this is up for argument.  I had thought
     7        that implicit in that is that they advertised their food as
     8        good for you----
     9
    10   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes.
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL: ----when, in fact, at best it is mediocre.
    13
    14   MR. RAMPTON:  At best, yes.  But the whole theme of the Defence
    15        on this part of case is that the food is actually, in our
    16        submission -- of course it is a matter for argument -- "the
    17        food is apt to kill you if you are not jolly careful".
    18
    19   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, but there is a lesser stage, that it is
    20        pulling people in on the basis it is nutritious.  We have
    21        ronald mcdonald and the nutrients apart from anything.  Is
    22        it Ronald and the nutrients?
    23
    24   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes.
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  And other references.  We have "potential
    27        Olympic athletes", and so on, in the ads, and things like
    28        that, when it is not good for them, the Defendants say.
    29
    30   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes.
    31
    32   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  So it is not just straightforward advertising
    33        to get people to come into McDonald's restaurants when the
    34        food will be positively bad for their health; it is not
    35        just as simple as that.
    36
    37   MR. RAMPTON:  No.  All I would say was that -- perhaps I leapt
    38        in a bit too quickly -- but all I would say is this, that
    39        if in the event your Lordship should decide that the proper
    40        meaning to be attached to the leaflet is that the food is
    41        apt to cause degenerative diseases which may be fatal,
    42        then, quite honestly, time spent on determining whether the
    43        advertisements are what one might call proper to attract
    44        people to eat a product which is perfectly harmless is time
    45        wasted.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  There are two parts to that part of the
    48        leaflet which might be taken to mean that McDonald's
    49        advertising draws in customers to their detriment, so far
    50        as health is concerned.  There are two aspects.  Whether it 
    51        draws them in, in part, by suggesting that the food is good 
    52        for them, that I can see may well fall within the compass 
    53        of the witnesses we are hearing within this "nutrition"
    54        section.  The other part -- when, in fact, it is bad for
    55        them -- is part of the equation under "advertising", but it
    56        is not part of this section of the evidence, because that
    57        evidence all comes out under "nutrition" which we have
    58        partly heard.
    59
    60   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, that I respectfully agree, and I agree

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