Day 044 - 02 Nov 94 - Page 35
1 neighbourhood, who will go to visits and be Ronald on an
2 occasional basis.
3
4 Q. Are there some Ronalds that particularly stay a long time?
5 Is there sort of like a hierarchy: they go to more
6 important events or they go onto TV ads, if they work
7 themselves up?
8 A. No, not usually, although the current ronald mcdonald
9 in the United States was, in fact, a local ronald mcdonald
10 for one of the markets before he became the actor in the
11 commercials. But there really is not a hierarchy, but they
12 tend to stay a long time; it seems to be quite a rewarding
13 activity for those people.
14
15 Q. I do not know if it is fact, but I heard that there is some
16 kind of national TV programme -- or there has been in the
17 past -- devoted to ronald mcdonald, is that correct, not
18 just an advert, an actual programme; or is that just what
19 we saw before, the Family Theatre type of thing?
20 A. Yes. Probably, you are thinking of the Family
21 Theatre. I seem to remember, way long ago, back before
22 I even came to McDonald's, because I remember a video clip
23 of Ronald reading the funny papers on television. But that
24 was way long gone and my memory is quite weak on it. But,
25 yes, he may have had a programme.
26
27 Q. If somebody appears on a programme like that, could that be
28 someone who just walked in off the street as an actor, or
29 would that be someone that really knows the background?
30 A. No. Obviously, if you are going to be a Ronald
31 McDonald, since he is a bit of a trademark for McDonald's,
32 you have to go through some training and be hired by the
33 local co-op or the local advertising agency.
34
35 Q. The ones we saw appearing on national ads, would they have
36 to-----
37 A. That is always one person.
38
39 Q. That is always one person, the same person?
40 A. Yes. The national advertising is done by a single
41 individual. What I am talking about in ronald mcdonald,
42 are those that actually go out and do the store visits.
43 Obviously, one person could not do them around the country,
44 so we hire different individuals in the different
45 marketplaces.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will break off there. What I would like
48 you to do, Mr. Morris, is concentrate on the points you are
49 trying to make, because it is not really a function of this
50 trial just to find out as much information as one can about
51 the way McDonald's works. I have to trust you to not do
52 that and to try to aim at particular points you want to
53 make, particularly where you think any of Mr. Green's
54 evidence may be contrary to what you expect Miss Dibb or
55 Gallatley to say in due course.
56
57 MR. MORRIS: Could I spend a couple of minutes to finish off
58 this point, to get it out of the way?
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
