Day 054 - 24 Nov 94 - Page 23

     
     1        A.  Yes, I think I have covered what could be called "the
     2        themes", and want to move on to what could be called "the
     3        executional techniques".  These are techniques which are
     4        commonly used in advertising to children and McDonald's
     5        employs many of these.  Humour is one, McDonald's
     6        advertisements often use puns.  These are likely to be
     7        appealing to quite young children.
     8
     9   Q.   Is there a problem with using humour or puns?
    10        A.  The reason I mention it is to point out the strong
    11        appeal that humorous advertisements will have to children.
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  So, it is not anything against using a pun,
    14        it is just appealing to children at all?
    15        A.  Yes, I am not saying that I think advertisements should
    16        not be humorous.  I am pointing out that this is a
    17        technique that is used to make advertisements attractive
    18        and appealing to children.  It is important for an
    19        advertiser, if they want to get their advertising message
    20        across to children, to attract their attention and by using
         humour, that is one effective way of doing that.
    22
    23        Another technique that is used is the use of characters in
    24        advertising.  This has become an increasingly popular
    25        technique employed by advertisers of products for
    26        children.  McDonald's have made the use of characters an
    27        integral part of their advertising and marketing focusing
    28        principally on ronald mcdonald, though there are also other
    29        range of characters, secondary characters, which feature in
    30        advertisements and also the use of food characters, cartoon
    31        or -----
    32
    33   MS. STEEL:  Do you remember an example of that in the
    34        advertisements you saw?
    35        A.  Yes, the McNuggetts, Chicken McNuggetts, are portrayed
    36        as parachutists.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not want to cut you short but when you
    39        come to dealing with executional techniques as with themes,
    40        I am most interested where you say there is something wrong
         beyond the effect of appealing to children at all.
    42        A.  OK.
    43
    44   MS. STEEL:   These techniques that you are going through, both
    45        the executional techniques and the kind of overall
    46        technique, are they the specific methods that were outlined
    47        as being effective at this conference that you were talking
    48        about earlier?
    49        A.  Yes, they were.
    50 
    51   Q.   So they are considered by the industry as being 
    52        particularly effective? 
    53        A.  Yes.  I wanted to move on to the specific use of
    54        characters.  I think the characters are used to generate
    55        loyalty of children towards the product.  The Ronald
    56        McDonald character, I think, would be seen as a friend and
    57        I think, indeed, in the Golden Arches Code he is referred
    58        to as such.  The Golden Arches Code does talk about the
    59        characters in more detail.
    60