Day 045 - 03 Nov 94 - Page 07
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2 MR. MORRIS: The thing is, on advertising, I think there is an
3 element of not just that the advertising is hiding other
4 complaints we are making about the company, but that it is,
5 in itself -- even if it was promoting something that we
6 were a hundred per cent happy with and everything about the
7 Corporation was terrific -- that the advertising and the
8 effect of the advertising, there is an element of: it is,
9 in itself, the way it is put over, a problem that needs to
10 be addressed. It underlies that section talking about
11 facades and hiding things and "stupid advertising,
12 consumerist hype". There is a theme which is critical of
13 that approach, in any event, even if it was advertising
14 something-----
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Whether you are right or wrong about that --
17 and you can come back to that at the end of case and say,
18 if you like, "No, you are wrong to take the view that this
19 case does not involve an inquiry into the rights and wrongs
20 of advertising generally." At the moment, I find it
21 difficult to see how cross-examination on that point of
22 Mr. Green is particularly going to help. That seems to me
23 to be argument on the material which I will have before me.
24
25 MS. STEEL: It is of McDonald's advertising, generally.
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27 MR. MORRIS: I think Mr. Green's answer was helpful.
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You have asked quite a lot of questions of
30 Mr. Green on specific points. What provoked my
31 intervention was questions about: "Why should advertising
32 play to the emotions?" Well, it is to make the
33 advertisement appealing and the company which has put it on
34 television appealing. I do not think Mr. Green can
35 particularly help about that. I would have thought that
36 was just everyday common sense.
37
38 MS. STEEL: I was asking about McDonald's aims in advertising.
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40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I would have thought they were exactly the
41 same as any other.
42
43 MS. STEEL: But then the leaflet criticises other organisations,
44 as well; it is not specifically about McDonald's.
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46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: All I am asking you to do is to not push
47 obvious points with a witness in cross-examination. I hope
48 what I have just said is a fair summary of McDonald's
49 attitude to advertising. It may well be a fair summary of
50 any other commercial enterprise. They want the
51 advertisement to be appealing; that they do by appealing to
52 different emotions of the watcher in order to make their
53 company and its products seem appealing.
54
55 (To the witness) Is that it?
56 A. I would agree with that.
57
58 MR. MORRIS: I think that-----
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You may think that is nasty. Someone else
