Day 186 - 10 Nov 95 - Page 22


     
     1        stronger than the leaflet.  The leaflet does not say
     2        anything about causal links between diet and disease.  But
     3        I cannot see, fundamentally, the problem with people making
     4        that kind of statement, even if they had a picture of a
     5        McDonald's burger, and criticising the links between junk
     6        food and disease.  I am sure -- well, that is basically
     7        it.  That is the context, as I see it.
     8
     9   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  Thank you.
    10
    11   MS. STEEL:   It might be best if I deal with the meaning that
    12        you propose.
    13
    14   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Right.
    15
    16   MS. STEEL:   The first problem that I see with it is where it
    17        says "very real risk".  I am not entirely sure what was
    18        intended by that, but to me that would imply a higher than
    19        -- I do not know what -- well, a high percentage chance
    20        that you would get those diseases, which I think goes a
    21        long way beyond what the leaflet says, even if you took it
    22        as meaning a causal link.
    23
    24        I think, also, as well as being true of the words "very
    25        real", that was also true of the words "you will suffer
    26        cancer", that that is too much of a definite.
    27
    28        The part about: "Although McDonald's know or ought to know
    29        this, they do not make it clear and they falsely claim that
    30        their food is nutritious", etcetera; there is not anything
    31        in the leaflet that says that they know or necessarily that
    32        they ought to know this.  Obviously, it has emerged from
    33        the trial that they did know this, but what has emerged
    34        during the trial is not going to be known to the person on
    35        the street; and it does not say in that section of the
    36        leaflet that McDonald's do know this.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think what I had in mind there -- you have
    39        surmised correctly why I put "very real risk" in.  If that
    40        were the meaning, it would come from, among other things,
    41        the Arches and the cartoon, among other matters, having
    42        some effect on the ordinary reasonable reader.  You have
    43        made your point about that, and I understand your point
    44        about that.
    45
    46        The "know" or "ought to know", if it came, might be argued
    47        to come from the ordinary reader knowing that McDonald's
    48        are a very large concern selling an awful lot of food; and
    49        the leaflet refers to an accepted medical fact -- which,
    50        again, a large corporation, with the benefit of all the 
    51        advice it might be expected to get, might therefore be 
    52        expected to know or be negligent if they did not. 
    53
    54   MS. STEEL:  I am not particularly worried about that part
    55        because, as I say, it has emerged during this trial that
    56        they are aware of the links, because of their own pamphlet
    57        published at the same time.  All I am saying is, to my
    58        reading, it is not specifically stated in the leaflet that
    59        they know or they ought to know.
    60

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