Day 298 - 11 Nov 96 - Page 17
1 eating less than a certain amount of months would mean that
2 consequently in compensation other people would be eating
3 for a very substantial amount of time, to achieve those
4 average figures that we have heard about, regularity of
5 visits. Especially when you consider that McDonald's are
6 targeting the heavy users and are trying to keep the people
7 that are eating there most often as eating there most often
8 in the future, even more often in the future.
9
10 McDonald's knows what it is doing with its advertising
11 strategy, to say the least. They would not be doing that
12 if they thought that people eating there regularly were
13 only likely to do that for a short time. They would be
14 wasting their advertising dollars.
15
16 Can I just say, and I have not done equivalent
17 calculations, that Tim Lobstein had a different approach,
18 which was the total grams of fat from McDonald's meals
19 compared could to the total grams that you would be very
20 unwise to eat more of in a day, and even he was comparing
21 it with the recommendations rather than scientifically
22 healthy maximums.
23
24 But it struck me that his approach would be even more
25 damning of McDonald's food as a contribution to some
26 people's diet. He was only talking about fat, but I think
27 we did refer to it a bit earlier on, so I am not going to
28 go over that ground.
29
30 The final thing I want to say on this subject is regarding
31 the meaning that you set. Helen has already made the point
32 that you talk about McDonald's food, it is very unhealthy,
33 that we have to prove, and we have already made the point
34 that McDonald's food in the eyes of the public is about
35 their certain products, which we are talking about
36 basically hamburgers, chips and milkshake or hamburgers,
37 chips and cola. That is the image that people have of
38 McDonald's food. We are here talking about perception,
39 meaning of the leaflet, of the words complained of.
40
41 So all the other products that might be brought into the
42 equation kind of are, we would say, irrelevant in terms of
43 the meaning because it is a certain type of food, not just
44 McDonald's food but also the leaflet specifically states
45 hamburgers, chips, colas and shakes, so that is clearly the
46 image that people would get from reading the fact sheet.
47
48 And, secondly, in your meaning you say because eating it
49 may well make your diet high in fat, sugar and animal
50 products, salt, and low in fibre, vitamins and minerals,
51 when we say eating it, we are talking about eating that
52 kind of food, the McDonald's food, the burgers, chips and
53 cola, et cetera.
54
55 And therefore the meaning is if you eat that kind of food
56 to some kind of extent it may, and I emphasise the word
57 "may" in your meaning, may well make your diet high in, et
58 cetera, et cetera. So even though we feel we have proved
59 conclusively that some people do, the reality is that they
60 are having their diets substantially affected by their
