Day 024 - 15 Sep 94 - Page 38


     
     1        A.  I believe it was, yes.
     2
     3   Q.   The letter that is written on 24th April was written at
     4        the conclusion of your investigation?
     5        A.  And I apologise, let me look again, please.
     6
     7   Q.   Exhibit 7.
     8        A.  Yes.  No, this, Exhibit 7, was not the first
     9        communication that we had.
    10
    11   Q.   If we turn to tab 34, page 165, there should be a mailgram
    12        there.  Is that the page you have?
    13        A.  Yes, page 165 is the April 10, 1987 mailgram that
    14        I caused to be sent to Mr. Rensi at McDonald's.
    15
    16   Q.   It says:  "Texas Attorney General, Jim Mattox, has asked
    17        that I contact you to arrange a meeting in our Dallas
    18        offices regarding the current McDonald's 'Good Food'
    19        advertising campaign.
    20
    21        We have reason to believe that the campaign may be in
    22        violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
    23
    24        Please contact me upon receipt of this mailgram to confirm
    25        your availability on Monday, 20th April.
    26
    27        You may have an attorney present, if you so desire.
    28        Details of material to be produced at that meeting will be
    29        forthcoming".
    30
    31        This mailgram that you sent, would this have been around
    32        the time that you began to start investigating them?
    33        A.  It would have been relatively soon after I had reached
    34        an initial conclusion that the campaign might be in
    35        violation of our Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
    36
    37        At the time, in 1987, my office was not very
    38        technologically advanced and it was extremely poorly
    39        staffed in terms of numbers of people who were available
    40        as support staff.  It was my practice at that time, rather
    41        than trying to get a letter out by overnight mail, and
    42        because we did not have at that time a fax machine, when
    43        I needed to get a notice out in a quick manner to a
    44        company but to make sure that it got it expeditiously, to
    45        use the mailgram service when I could dictate the content
    46        of a letter with the knowledge that it would be delivered
    47        immediately the next morning.  That is what this reflects.
    48
    49   Q.   What would have been the purpose of a meeting that was
    50        suggested with McDonald's at this point? 
    51        A.  As distinguished from the purpose of the meetings that 
    52        we requested that all the companies come to in the 
    53        preceding year, by this point we had examined the
    54        advertising and had reached a fairly solid preliminary
    55        conclusion that there was a problem.  The purpose of the
    56        meeting, therefore, would be not to talk about whether or
    57        not we thought there was a problem, but to talk about how
    58        McDonald's could resolve the problem.  Any resolution
    59        would have had to have concluded a commitment by
    60        McDonald's to stop the advertising at issue.

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