Day 049 - 09 Nov 94 - Page 21

     
     1        connection, at all.  It is purely a reward for something
     2        that they have achieved or got through, an experience they
     3        have got through, which is why, in my view, the sponsorship
     4        is a lot more dangerous -- if you want to put it in those
     5        terms -- than the advertising, because, as the children get
     6        older, it is a lot easier to understand that an
     7        advertisement is selling than it is a reward scheme from a
     8        school or a doctor's or a dentist's or a children's
     9        hospital, or whatever.
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do you really have anything more to ask
    12        Ms. Gallatley?
    13
    14   MS. STEEL:  I am just checking.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You put her statement to her, and you have
    17        asked her to enlarge and explain on her point.
    18
    19   MS. STEEL:  (To the witness)  Just one thing:  were you
    20        surprised by what you found when you talked to the
         children?
    22        A.  Yes, I was, because obviously, as an adult, it is hard
    23        to imagine the effect of advertising on a much younger
    24        mind; and so I was genuinely surprised that McDonald's did
    25        have the influence, and does have the influence, that it is
    26        on children; and I was actually genuinely surprised that
    27        McDonald's name came up individually at all so often.
    28
    29   MR. MORRIS:  Just two or three extra questions.  I think
    30        McDonald's have said that a million people eat there every
    31        day in this country, something like that.  So if, every
    32        day, 49 million people, or whatever, are not eating at
    33        McDonald's, why did the children indicate that they would
    34        be laughed at or felt they would be laughed at if they did
    35        not go?
    36        A.  All I know is that they said they do go.  All I can say
    37        is my experience is that, obviously, they do go, and that
    38        is why, presumably, they brought up McDonald's and only
    39        McDonald's.  Obviously, a high proportion of children do
    40        visit McDonald's.
    41
    42   Q.   But if the vast majority are not visiting McDonald's for
    43        the vast majority of time, did they give any indication of
    44        why they felt everyone is going?
    45        A.  I mean, with teenagers, again, they would always bring
    46        up this weekend point, that it was the place that they
    47        would go on a Saturday.  Presumably, not all of them go
    48        there every day, but they were indicating they would go
    49        there every week.  The reason, I think, why McDonald's is
    50        mentioned again and again is from everything that I have 
    51        already said, really, all the pressure from advertising and 
    52        sponsorship and, as the teenagers would say, the hype. 
    53
    54   MR. MORRIS:  So was that making an impression on kids -- all
    55        that, together?
    56
    57   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Well, this is just going over ground which
    58        Ms. Gallatley has dealt with.
    59
    60   MR. MORRIS:  When you said in your last paragraph, "No other