Day 049 - 09 Nov 94 - Page 11

     
     1        A.  For the younger children, by "advertising", I do not
     2        just mean television advertising; I mean sponsorship
     3        especially which, to me, I just count as advertising.  They
     4        would mention ronald mcdonald by far more than anything
     5        else about McDonald's.  ronald mcdonald was the thing that
     6        kept coming up for the younger children, and they would
     7        just talk about that character, especially with the younger
     8        ones, as if it was something that was real to them and as
     9        if it was something that was positive and good; and the
    10        thing that worried me greatly was that, you know, these
    11        younger children seemed to think it did not matter how much
    12        of McDonald's products they ate, and that was fine and that
    13        was healthy and that was good, because ronald mcdonald told
    14        them that that was so.
    15
    16   Q.   The association with dentists and doctors?
    17        A.  And also because of the sponsorship.
    18
    19   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Just pause a moment.  Were you going to
    20        mention sponsorship again, because I am not clear in my own
         mind what you mean by sponsorship?
    22        A.  Well, separate to the television advertising, things
    23        that were mentioned were -- for example, on Play Dough, at
    24        the moment, you will often get ronald mcdonald as a
    25        character in the actual Play Dough for very young
    26        children.  So everything from that, right through to giving
    27        out reward schemes mentioning McDonald's from something
    28        like the dentist:  if they have been a good child, they get
    29        something from McDonald's to say how good they have been.
    30        That is what I mean by sponsorship, which was something
    31        that was brought up by the younger children as being --
    32        obviously, I mean, they did not say, "This has influenced
    33        me", but because of the way they mentioned it, obviously it
    34        had influenced them to see McDonald's as just, basically, a
    35        part of their life and a character that made them think
    36        that everything that McDonald's sold must be good, good,
    37        good.
    38
    39   MS. STEEL:  They did not appear to question what they were being
    40        told by McDonald's or by Ronald or the impression they were
         getting from Ronald?
    42        A.  Obviously, a few did; a minority who, for example, were
    43        already vegetarian, obviously did question.  But the
    44        majority did not question what ronald mcdonald was telling
    45        them, no.  They just took it as fact, really.
    46
    47   MS. STEEL:   I do not know whether there is a need to go through
    48        the paragraph about Mr. Green, or not?
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No. 
    51 
    52   MS. STEEL:  I am not sure how much is accepted. 
    53
    54   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Is there a part you do not particularly want
    55        to introduce into the evidence, because if there is I can
    56        put a bracket around it and say it is an exception to
    57        making it part of the evidence.
    58
    59   MS. STEEL:  It is not that it is a problem; it is just that I
    60        was not sure whether they were now accepting that that was