Day 045 - 03 Nov 94 - Page 04
1
2 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, might I suggest that Mr. Morris says what
3 he means by "subliminal"? It is a technical term. It is
4 important that the witness should be allowed to deal
5 precisely with the suggestion that is made.
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think you should, because I may be missing
8 something. The appeals to the emotions might be thought to
9 be quite apparent from the advertisement. If you
10 suggesting they are not, then put what you have in mind.
11
12 MR. MORRIS: (To the witness) You said that the emotions are
13 stimulated, for whatever reason, by any specific method,
14 but they are stimulated because that is part of the
15 entertainment value of the commercial; yes? But, in fact,
16 you are saying that you want people to feel that empathy
17 towards the company. So is it not a fact that the hidden
18 agenda, or the real agenda, is to stimulate people's
19 emotions so that they feel emotional about McDonald's?
20 A. Stimulating the emotions, as you say, is part of
21 advertising. There is no untoward aspect about it. People
22 like to look at commercials. For example, here in England,
23 there might be a commercial for an ale, and if it makes you
24 laugh and it makes you feel good, then you are going to
25 feel better about that ale and better about that company.
26
27 It is the same in quick service restaurants as it may be
28 for automobiles, as it may be for other things. If you
29 look at the commercials overall, there is nothing that is
30 used in McDonald's commercials that is not used in other
31 commercials throughout the world.
32
33 Q. Yes. But we are not talking about all commercials here,
34 whether it happens in other commercials. It may be that
35 all advertising employs these techniques, but we are
36 talking about McDonald's advertising. Is that the hidden
37 agenda?
38 A. No. There is no hidden agenda. The emotions are quite
39 plain. You either like them or not like them, you either
40 feel good about it or you do not feel good about it. There
41 is no hidden agenda.
42
43 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I had assumed -- in fact, it has not been
44 alleged -- but there is nothing in any your advertisements,
45 and maybe it is forbidden by all the rules, but one has
46 read from time to time of things actually appearing on the
47 screen which you do not see. I mean, an example would be a
48 hamburger which is flashing on and off at a different
49 wavelength to the ordinary picture. There has been
50 research that it does go into the subconscious of the
51 person who is watching; they do not even know that they are
52 seeing that. There is nothing----
53 A. No. There is nothing of that kind in our commercials.
54
55 Q. Is it allowed by the various guidelines?
56 A. I would doubt that it would be allowed whatsoever, but
57 it certainly would not be allowed from our perspective,
58 according to our guidelines.
59
60 Q. So there is nothing subliminal, or anything of that kind?
