Day 024 - 15 Sep 94 - Page 20
1
2 MS. STEEL: Eventually, McDonald's (along with the other
3 companies) agreed to provide this information in the form
4 of brochures. What was the position then? Was there some
5 deadline?
6 A. In June, McDonald's advised us that they could not
7 tell us whether or not they would make brochures available
8 nationwide in response to the June 3rd letter until after
9 our 4th July holiday.
10
11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We are going on to the press release now,
12 are we?
13
14 MS. STEEL: Yes.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will take our five-minute break now.
17
18 (Short Adjournment)
19
20 MS. STEEL: Was there some sort of agreement between the
21 companies that had participated in the discussions and the
22 Attorneys General offices about making the public aware
23 about the existence of these brochures?
24 A. We eventually, that summer, reached agreement with
25 McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Wendys,
26 Jack-in-the-Box and Burger King -- perhaps some others,
27 I believe -- that they would give their own form of
28 ingredient nutrition brochure out to the public through
29 distribution at their local restaurants; so, yes, there
30 was an agreement.
31
32 Q. What was the position about publicising the fact that this
33 information was going to be made available?
34 A. To that, I must resort to memory. We made it clear to
35 the various companies that we would want to, that we would
36 announce the resolution and that we would not be objecting
37 to their announcing it as well, because we did not want
38 one company to have a competitive leg up over another
39 company by being able to say that they were leading the
40 pack. We did make it clear to the various chains that we
41 would -- when we did reach resolution with all of them,
42 that we would then announce the resolution. We would
43 advise them in advance of when we would make the
44 announcement and we made it clear to them that we decided
45 that they hold off on any announcement of their own.
46
47 Q. So there was some sort of agreement that if anyone was
48 going to make an announcement everybody would do it on the
49 same day?
50 A. To my memory, there was an informal understanding
51 amongst all of the players, the companies and the states
52 alike, that any announcement of the mutual agreement of
53 the companies and the Attorneys General would be made at
54 the same time.
55
56 Q. What happened then?
57 A. Well, as I believe I said earlier, McDonald's told us
58 some time in June they would need until after the July 4th
59 holiday to advise us as to whether or not they would agree
60 to make the brochures available. Reconstructing from the
