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."
