Day 053 - 22 Nov 94 - Page 14


     
     1        maybe, could clarify what he means, because he is saying
     2        that this is clarifying the issues.  We do not believe it
     3        is clarifying the issues; we believe it is dramatically and
     4        fundamentally changing the issues.
     5
     6        I would just like to emphasise, from the context of the
     7        leaflet, why we do not think this says, "Eat McDonald's
     8        meals, it will give you cancer", concentrating on "eat
     9        McDonald's meals, it is the meals that give you the
    10        cancer".
    11
    12        First of all, if we look at the cartoon, it does not say
    13        "McDonald's junk food"; it talks about junk food in
    14        general.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have to say that I am not really impressed
    17        with that point, when the leaflet is covered with
    18        McDonald's Golden Arches and there is a reference above it
    19        to "McDonald's junk food".  It may equally apply to other
    20        people as well, but I find difficult to see how "McDonald's
    21        junk food" can be moved to one side.
    22
    23   MR. MORRIS:  No.  It is McDonald's -- if that relates to the
    24        section on diet and disease, that cartoon, if it could be
    25        related to that section, it is clearly referring to a diet
    26        of junk food.  Obviously, McDonald's fits into that
    27        category in the leaflet, but it is not the question that
    28        someone has been eating McDonald's food all their lives and
    29        nothing else, or so much of it that, you know, they could
    30        not possibly have a balanced diet.  We are talking about a
    31        diet high in fat, sugar and animal products, low in fibre,
    32        vitamins and minerals.
    33
    34   MS. STEEL:  Can I also say that I do not think it necessarily
    35        represents the interpretation that has been placed on it at
    36        all.  What I would say it represents is a symbolic crushing
    37        of people and animals by the burger industry; that that is
    38        the effect, that the burger industry is walking all over
    39        people and animals and just using them to make their
    40        profits.  I do not see that it can be a specific reference
    41        to heart disease and cancer.  I definitely do not see that
    42        it could be talking about or that it is referring to a
    43        causal link between McDonald's food and cancer.  I just do
    44        not see that at all.
    45
    46        Also, in the light of Mr. Rampton's recognition that junk
    47        food was whatever a person did not like and that he was not
    48        complaining about it, it just implies -- yes,
    49        Professor Wheelock said that junk food was whatever a
    50        person did not like, and Mr. Rampton got up and said that 
    51        they were not complaining about the use of the word "junk 
    52        food". 
    53
    54        I mean, to me, it is talking about the industry and,
    55        I think in the passage on the back, how burger chains just
    56        like taking over and crushing all the choices that people
    57        have; the bit in the "Everything must go" box about: "This
    58        materialist mentality is affecting all of our lives, with
    59        giant conglomerates dominating the marketplace, allowing
    60        little or no room for people to create genuine choices."

Prev Next Index