Day 041 - 28 Oct 94 - Page 35

     
     1        and, therefore, which concern you, at any rate in this
     2        context that I am on at the moment.  It says:  "UK,
     3        November 1990.  The Advertising Standards Authority ruled
     4        that a McDonald's advert was misleading which claimed that
     5        chemicals only played a very small part in the company's
     6        food."  Do you recall that event?
     7        A.  Yes, I do.
     8
     9   Q.   Do you recall what the advertisement was?
    10        A.  It was basically talking about the cleanliness of our
    11        restaurants, and the fact that we do use a lot of chemicals
    12        in the cleaning of our restaurants, but that it only plays
    13        a very small part in our food.
    14
    15   Q.   It is my fault -- it was a bad question.  Where did the
    16        advertisement appear, do you recall?
    17        A.  It appeared in magazines and the press.  It was aimed
    18        at adults.
    19
    20   Q.   Was that a national advert?
         A.  Yes, it was.
    22
    23   Q.   I should ask you this:  For the purposes of this case, the
    24        fact that that ruling was made has been accepted by
    25        McDonald's.  What actually happened in consequence of that
    26        ruling?
    27        A.  We withdrew the ad.
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I had not followed.  What was the vice which
    30        the ASA saw?  What did the ad say and what was the
    31        exception which the ASA took to it?
    32        A.  Basically, the ad said that we use chemicals to clean
    33        our restaurants, but it plays a very small part in our
    34        food.  It then went on to give one or two examples of how
    35         -- I think it referred to milk shakes where it says we use
    36        a stabiliser in the milk shake.  But it then went on to
    37        give other examples.
    38
    39        The ruling came that it was misleading because we did not
    40        give all of the small details of all the different
         chemicals that were in the food.  That was my
    42        understanding.  We were being very specific to one or two
    43        points, and they said we were being misleading because we
    44        did not paint the broader picture.  So, we withdrew the ad.
    45
    46   MR. RAMPTON:  The next one, Mr. Hawkes, says:  "UK, April 1991.
    47        The Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint
    48        against a McDonald's advert in 'Our Schools' magazine
    49        (aimed at 5-11 yr olds) headlined 'Go Green - McDonald's
    50        and the Environment'.  The Authority found that the advert 
    51        had wrongly implied that if the company ended its practice 
    52        of using foam packaging, a paper based alternative would 
    53        not be 'fully recyclable'.  It also found that it was
    54        misleading for the company to refer to the 'recyclability'
    55        of their packaging if they themselves were not engaged in
    56        recycling the material.  The company admitted that they had
    57        only had a small and temporary pilot recycling scheme at
    58        four Nottingham stores."
    59
    60        Mr. Hawkes, do you remember that event in April 1991?