2 May - 8 May 1996
Each week McSpotlight will be updated on how the world's press has covered McLibel, McDonald's and multinationals in general.
In the odd one out round, the contestants were shown four pictures:
- Michael Howard (the British Home Secretary)
- Lyticia Deane (star of UK soap Eastenders')
- Rupert Allason MP
- Helen Steel and Dave Morris
The odd one out was Michael Howard who has NOT represented himself in a court case, but who has lost 10 court cases as Home Secretary.
The live recording (filmed the night before) had also included a discussion of McDonald's attempts at censorship, leading on to a mention that all the info they're trying to hide is on the Internet. The URL of the McSpotlight website was then flashed across the bottom of the screen. Unfortunately, this segment was cut out, not due to legal worries but because of time pressures. This all took place in the context of Mohammed Al Masari (the Saudi dissident who recently escaped deportation from the UK) being on the show, and included lots of jokes about Saudi censorship.
In an earlier round, the panellists had been presented with a series of video clips and they had to say what had been decreed unfit for public consumption in Saudi Arabia. Among the things banned were one of Barbara Cartland's books, and a newspaper ad picturing the bare back of a woman. One of the clips was of a McDonald's store - McDonald's has not been banned in Saudi Arabia, although a person going up and ordering "an extra thick shake/sheik" might be!
Preston insisted that "nothing that is unfit for human consumption goes into a McDonald's restaurant" and his company had not lied in attempting to counter assertions by Morris & Steel and their group, London Greenpeace.
"You're lying to the public," said Steel.
"I am not lying to the public," Preston replied."
With 650 restaurants, the company reckons there is one for every 90,000 people in the UK, and says this will come down to one for every 50,000 by the end of the century - and that number could easily double. After all, the US has a Big Mac parlour for every 25,000 citizens and is thought to be far from saturated.
Last year, it initiated an agreement with Welcome Break, which saw its first two restaurants open in motorway service stations. A separate deal with Stena has put a seaborne McDonald's aboard the high-speed sea catamaran plying between Holyhead and Dun Laoghaire. Another possibility is football grounds. The first McDonald's opened in a stadium last year at Anfield, home of Liverpool FC and Mike Love [Head of Communications] says more are likely to follow.
Love explained that the golden arches had not remained unscathed by the crisis in British beef: "Like everyone else, we are experiencing an effect on our sales, and beef sales are not anything like they were before 20 March." But he added: "We see this as short term, and are confident it will be resolved soon."
"We've always said that we'll listen to our customers, and when confidence is restored, then we'll go back [to using British beef]. At the moment they're telling us that there's still considerable uncertainty about British beef."
