Day 041 - 28 Oct 94 - Page 61
1 as you can get. But some of the other things, you see, are
2 just questions about McDonald's and advertising.
3
4 MR. MORRIS: Yes. Before we go into further questions, the
5 leaflet, as everybody knows, covers quite a broad spectrum
6 of which the 16 points have been distilled by the
7 Plaintiffs, and they always argue they have to be read in
8 context. It strikes me a large part of the leaflet is
9 precisely about McDonald's attempt to project an image,
10 quite apart from whether their food is healthy or
11 unhealthy. How they do this is very, very important to our
12 case-----
13
14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, but remember you have a specific witness
15 in the witness box. What you are trying to do is get
16 matters from him. You do not have to press him about the
17 power of advertising in order to market your goods; you can
18 really take that as read and Mr. Hawkes has made several
19 answers about that, that it is, effectively, a powerful
20 tool or can be properly used.
21
22 What you have to be aiming at is the parts of it which you
23 say in the hands of McDonald's can be criticised in the way
24 the leaflet criticises them. Please accept this as an
25 effort to help you; if you are going to score points in
26 this arena, it is by concentrating on that that you will
27 score points rather than in a much more general approach.
28
29 MR. MORRIS: Yes. As you have probably seen, my approach is
30 initially to start off with generalities and then basically
31 get down to specifics-----
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am concerned about you starting off with
34 generalities, unless I can see that they are moving towards
35 the specifics.
36
37 MS. STEEL: I had actually worked out a number of specific
38 questions, but because there was a new video (and I may
39 want to ask questions about that) I did not really want to
40 put all those questions this afternoon, seeing as we are
41 going to have to come back on Monday in any event. So, it
42 has kind of like put us out of kilter in terms of what we
43 plan to do. The points that Mr. Morris are making are
44 areas that we did want to cover in any event.
45
46 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I am simply not content with that. I do
47 not see why my clients should sit here and pay for
48 Mr. Morris' enthusiasm and love of generalities. If the
49 Defendants want to filibuster, let them do it in their own
50 time. Let us break up now, I say, and come back on Monday
51 morning so that this witness does not waste his time, your
52 Lordship does not waste your time and we do not waste our
53 money.
54
55 Mr. Morris, so far as I can tell, seems to see some kind of
56 long term obligation to bat through to stumps every time he
57 gets up on his feet. Frankly, I do object most strongly to
58 it-----
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you remember I said something to you the
