Day 055 - 25 Nov 94 - Page 20
1 A. Oh, I think if it could be shown that it was not a
2 balanced meal, then I think there would be grounds for
3 complaint.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There is nothing there which would stop
6 McDonald's advertising its burgers, is there?
7 A. Unless -- it would depend how they chose to portray
8 it. If it could be interpreted as being substituted for a
9 balanced meal, then this would rule that out, but otherwise
10 it would not.
11
12 Q. There might be fault taken with the way it is done in one
13 respect or another, but there would not be anything to
14 stop, altogether, McDonald's advertising its burgers?
15 A. No, not in that particular recommendation.
16
17 Q. In any of these?
18 A. There are proposals which we have not yet come to which
19 do propose timing restrictions, specifically in relation to
20 children's viewing.
21
22 MS. STEEL: You said that if it could be shown it was not a
23 balanced meal, then there would be ground for complaint.
24 If they were advertising it as a meal, if they were
25 advertising, say, fries and a big beefburger, or something
26 like that, and a Coca Cola, is that something that could
27 fall foul of this proposal?
28 A. I think, yes, if that description of the food you have
29 just given me does not sound to me as if that fulfils a
30 nutritionally balanced meal.
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: So that would be banned? McDonald's could
33 not advertise a burger and fries under the Code?
34
35 MS. STEEL: As a meal?
36 A. As a balanced meal.
37
38 MS. STEEL: Or as a substitute for a balanced meal?
39
40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If it is lunch, they could not advertise that
41 you go in and have a burger of some kind, french fries and
42 a Coke for lunch; is that what are you saying, because that
43 is what Ms. Steel is really ----
44 A. Yes. I think if the implication was that this was
45 going to be a balanced meal which, by implication, lunch is
46 often considered to be -----
47
48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am trying to get away from the balanced
49 meal, for a moment, to just see what the reality was.
50
51 MS. STEEL: Substitution for a balanced meal is the point.
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. But what I am interested in: does that
54 mean, to you, that McDonald's could not advertise a burger,
55 fries and Coke to have as one's lunch?
56 A. I think that if -- I am sorry to come back to this --
57 if the implication was that this was a substitute for a
58 balanced meal, then I would argue that, yes, that would
59 fall foul of this rule.
60
