McSpotlight: Start Here

Start
Here

Hello. And welcome. To McSpotlight. The biggest, loudest, most red Anti-McDonald's extravaganza the world has ever known. Anything you could possibly want to know about McDonald's or McLibel nestles somewhere in this site. Over 20,000 separate files. Don't get us wrong, though, we're not saying don't eat Big Macs. We just provide the info to let you judge for yourself.

whodunnit McSpotlight is constructed by the McInformation Network, an independent network of volunteers working from over 20 countries. Email us, if you like, or join the Mailing list to get all the latest news.
McSpotlight opened for non-business in Feb 1997 and now gets near enough 2 million hits a month. We like to claim that we've had the most press coverage of any website in the world ever, which may well be true. And the most awards, which almost certainly isn't.
It all started with the McLibel Trial. Of which much, much, much, much, much more below.

and why. Yes, we appreciate that McDonald's only sell hamburgers and aren't really that important in the general scheme of things. But that's not the point: McD's have been used to symbolise all multinationals and big business putting their profits before everything else. There's no way we could try and do a McSpotlight on all corporations, so we thought we'd do one and let people extrapolate from there. (Having said that, we had a half-hearted bash at naming some other names, in Beyond McDonald's.
But they are different in one crucial respect. Censorship. They're just not happy about people criticising their business, and they tend to throw legal threats at anyone who dares do it. Hence the McLibel Trial. Hence the outcry. Hence McSpotlight.

Getting About/
Finding Stuff Wading through this mass of information (more than 100Mb) can seem a little daunting. Which is why we've provided you with all sorts of helpful tools to aid your path and smooth your journey.

Mirror Sites - first things first, make sure you're accessing the best mirror site (= complete copy of McSpotlight placed in various locations around the world). Go to the one nearest you, save on download time and therefore your phone bill.
Guided Tour - a good way to get to know the site as the McLibel defendants take you round, pointing out all the highlights and lowlife.

Site Map - all the sections of the site laid out on a suspiciously simple looking flow chart. Click on a name, click your heels three times and you're there. Loverly colour scheme and dead easy to use.
Navigation buttons - conveniently shaped like buttons. Kinda look the same on every page and tend to lurh in much the same [places (usually the bottom). Usually take you to where they say they will. More details below.
Search - the place to go if you're looking for something specific. Type in keywords and get a list of relevant documents. Became a lot smarter since we got a fancy new one with clever options.

Keeping Up After reading just a few pages of McSpotty, you will of course find it imperative to keep bang up-to-date with every move we make.
What's New? - All the latest additions to the site as they're uploaded. Could be an idea to put a url minder on this page, so you get a message each time it changes.
Mailing list - subscribe to the McLibel and McSpotlight mailing lists to receive emails with all the latest news, gossip, scandal and events from the Anti-McDonald's world.

Off your arse It aint all just sitting looking at computers round here. There's loads of stuff to get involved in - both from the comfort of your own computer and in a more realpeople reallife sort of fashion. Volunteers - McSpotlight always, always needs more help. Htmlers, programmers, typists, researchers, artistes, people with skills we didn't even know we needed till you contacted us.
Donations - cash comes in handy when your opponent makes $20 billion a year. Both to fight the McLibel case (even after the verdict there'll be plenty of appeals and other costly stuff going on) and to run McSpotlight. Can't be bothered to do anything yourself? Send us a cheque and we'll do it for you.
Wish list - stuff that's needed for the case, campaigns and McSpotlight. Got a bit of unused equipment lying about? Gissit.
Campaigns - tonnes of stuff going on in over 25 countries. You can't help but get involved.
Debating Room - a global forum for uncensored discussions and debate about McDonald's and all they stand for. Or so it says here.
Adopt-a-Store - sign up to help leaflet every UK McDonald's after the verdict in the McLibel Trial.
McSpotlight Kit - download this compressed version of the whole site to help ensure that McDonald's will never be able to stop the dissemination of this information.

Main sections These are the big boys. All of McSpotlight's 80 Mbs of information stored logically and accessibly into the following on-so-logical sections.
McLibel Trial - McDonald's surely rue the day they sued Helen Steel and Dave Morris for distributing some leaflets called "What's Wrong with McDonald's?" and thus spawning the UK's longest ever libel trial.
This section contains more than you could ever possibly want to know about the trial, including the official court transcripts from each of the 313 court days, over 60 witness statements, the original writ, excerpts of the evidence and loads of other official documents.

Issues - The most significant issues examined in the McLibel trial and by critics in general: nutrition, advertising, animal welfare, environment, employment, censorship, global trade, international expansion and capitalism. These are broken down into seperate sections, collating all the information we have for that issue in a variety of formats - McLibel witness statements, scientific reports, press articles, McDonald's own publications, other campaigning groups literature, links to other sites and so on.

Media - selling vast quantities of hamburgers is a surprisingly newsworthy business. Not to mention protecting the reputation of companies that make hamburgers. Everything we come across relating to McDonald's, McLibel, Multinationals and McSpotlight goes in here. Newspaper and magazine articles, scripts from plays, details and excerpts from books and reports, transcripts of TV and radio programs and even video footage and cartoons.
Campaigns - section brings you the latest news on worldwide protests and campaigning events against McDonald's and other multinationals from over 20 countries around the world. It also provides a guide to Internet Action that you can do right now. Translations of campaign literature into non-english languages are here in the relative country pages and provides ready-to-print leaflets.
The Company - Information about McDonald's. It contains a company history, a 'whos whos', a link to McDonald's own web site and all the latest news about the companies activities. Best of all, a catalogue of their past legal actions. Makes impressive reading.
Debate - provides a forum for you to discuss the issues raised by McSpotlight with other people. You can choose from a variety of subjects and exchange views with people all over the world.
For Sale - contains information about making donations and the merchandise that is sold to help fund the campaign. You can print out order forms and order stickers, T'shirts, videos, posters etc. Merchandise is available from McSpotlight, McLibel and other independent sources.

Beyond McDonald's - demonstrates that it's not just McDonald's in the McSpotlight. McDonald's symbolise a wide range of different injustices, abuses and exploitations. Other multinationals also use unethical practises to create maximum profit. The Beyond section examines a variety of other unethical companies.

Highlights These are the bits we're particularly fond of. For no particular reason and in no particular order. Send us yours and we'll add 'em to the list.
Guided Tour of McDonald's Website - a McSpotlight all-time classic. in which we enclose McDonald's own website inside ours and add a commentary. Won a few awards for this one.
Debating Room -
Subverts - bad things happening to McDonald's adverts in the middle of the night.
Czech action - blinding picket involving all sorts of dressings-ups and strange goings on. And we have the pictures to prove it.
McDonald's spy speaks - an exclusive interview with one of the spies who infiltrated the activist meetings and collected evidence for the McLibel Trial.
Caught in the McSpotlight - Ronald's back against the wall. Cartoon classic.
Animation - sit back and watch as the world takes action against the curse of the giant M.
Japanese Campaigns page - leading the way with all sorts of resources.
Banned play - the complete text of a play McDonald's thought they'd seen the last of.
Reconstructions - exclusive images from the filming of the McLibel documentary.
Mountains Against McDonald's - an inspiring tale of an Australian mountain's successful campaign to keep McDonald's off it's toes.
Other McLibels - you thought the McLibel Trial was an isolated incident? Have a look at some of the other people they've threatened with legal action.

Hello.	And welcome. To McSpotlight. The biggest, loudest, most red Anti-McDonald's extravaganza the world has ever known. Anything you could possibly want to know about McDonald's or McLibel nestles somewhere in this site. Over 20,000 separate files. Don't get us wrong, though, we're not saying don't eat Big Macs. We just provide the info to let you judge for yourself.
whodunnit	McSpotlight is constructed by the McInformation Network, an independent network of volunteers working from over 20 countries. Email us, if you like, or join the Mailing list to get all the latest news. McSpotlight opened for non-business in Feb 1997 and now gets near enough 2 million hits a month. We like to claim that we've had the most press coverage of any website in the world ever, which may well be true. And the most awards, which almost certainly isn't. It all started with the McLibel Trial. Of which much, much, much, much, much more below.
and why.	Yes, we appreciate that McDonald's only sell hamburgers and aren't really that important in the general scheme of things. But that's not the point: McD's have been used to symbolise all multinationals and big business putting their profits before everything else. There's no way we could try and do a McSpotlight on all corporations, so we thought we'd do one and let people extrapolate from there. (Having said that, we had a half-hearted bash at naming some other names, in Beyond McDonald's. But they are different in one crucial respect. Censorship. They're just not happy about people criticising their business, and they tend to throw legal threats at anyone who dares do it. Hence the McLibel Trial. Hence the outcry. Hence McSpotlight.
Getting About/ Finding Stuff	Wading through this mass of information (more than 100Mb) can seem a little daunting. Which is why we've provided you with all sorts of helpful tools to aid your path and smooth your journey.
	Mirror Sites - first things first, make sure you're accessing the best mirror site (= complete copy of McSpotlight placed in various locations around the world). Go to the one nearest you, save on download time and therefore your phone bill.
	Guided Tour - a good way to get to know the site as the McLibel defendants take you round, pointing out all the highlights and lowlife.
	Site Map - all the sections of the site laid out on a suspiciously simple looking flow chart. Click on a name, click your heels three times and you're there. Loverly colour scheme and dead easy to use.
	Navigation buttons - conveniently shaped like buttons. Kinda look the same on every page and tend to lurh in much the same [places (usually the bottom). Usually take you to where they say they will. More details below.
	Search - the place to go if you're looking for something specific. Type in keywords and get a list of relevant documents. Became a lot smarter since we got a fancy new one with clever options.
Keeping Up	After reading just a few pages of McSpotty, you will of course find it imperative to keep bang up-to-date with every move we make.
	What's New? - All the latest additions to the site as they're uploaded. Could be an idea to put a url minder on this page, so you get a message each time it changes. Mailing list - subscribe to the McLibel and McSpotlight mailing lists to receive emails with all the latest news, gossip, scandal and events from the Anti-McDonald's world.
Off your arse	It aint all just sitting looking at computers round here. There's loads of stuff to get involved in - both from the comfort of your own computer and in a more realpeople reallife sort of fashion.	Volunteers - McSpotlight always, always needs more help. Htmlers, programmers, typists, researchers, artistes, people with skills we didn't even know we needed till you contacted us.
	Donations - cash comes in handy when your opponent makes $20 billion a year. Both to fight the McLibel case (even after the verdict there'll be plenty of appeals and other costly stuff going on) and to run McSpotlight. Can't be bothered to do anything yourself? Send us a cheque and we'll do it for you. Wish list - stuff that's needed for the case, campaigns and McSpotlight. Got a bit of unused equipment lying about? Gissit. Campaigns - tonnes of stuff going on in over 25 countries. You can't help but get involved. Debating Room - a global forum for uncensored discussions and debate about McDonald's and all they stand for. Or so it says here. Adopt-a-Store - sign up to help leaflet every UK McDonald's after the verdict in the McLibel Trial. McSpotlight Kit - download this compressed version of the whole site to help ensure that McDonald's will never be able to stop the dissemination of this information.
Main sections	These are the big boys. All of McSpotlight's 80 Mbs of information stored logically and accessibly into the following on-so-logical sections.
	McLibel Trial - McDonald's surely rue the day they sued Helen Steel and Dave Morris for distributing some leaflets called "What's Wrong with McDonald's?" and thus spawning the UK's longest ever libel trial. This section contains more than you could ever possibly want to know about the trial, including the official court transcripts from each of the 313 court days, over 60 witness statements, the original writ, excerpts of the evidence and loads of other official documents.
	Issues - The most significant issues examined in the McLibel trial and by critics in general: nutrition, advertising, animal welfare, environment, employment, censorship, global trade, international expansion and capitalism. These are broken down into seperate sections, collating all the information we have for that issue in a variety of formats - McLibel witness statements, scientific reports, press articles, McDonald's own publications, other campaigning groups literature, links to other sites and so on.
	Media - selling vast quantities of hamburgers is a surprisingly newsworthy business. Not to mention protecting the reputation of companies that make hamburgers. Everything we come across relating to McDonald's, McLibel, Multinationals and McSpotlight goes in here. Newspaper and magazine articles, scripts from plays, details and excerpts from books and reports, transcripts of TV and radio programs and even video footage and cartoons.
	Campaigns - section brings you the latest news on worldwide protests and campaigning events against McDonald's and other multinationals from over 20 countries around the world. It also provides a guide to Internet Action that you can do right now. Translations of campaign literature into non-english languages are here in the relative country pages and provides ready-to-print leaflets.
	The Company - Information about McDonald's. It contains a company history, a 'whos whos', a link to McDonald's own web site and all the latest news about the companies activities. Best of all, a catalogue of their past legal actions. Makes impressive reading.
	Debate - provides a forum for you to discuss the issues raised by McSpotlight with other people. You can choose from a variety of subjects and exchange views with people all over the world.
	For Sale - contains information about making donations and the merchandise that is sold to help fund the campaign. You can print out order forms and order stickers, T'shirts, videos, posters etc. Merchandise is available from McSpotlight, McLibel and other independent sources.
	Beyond McDonald's - demonstrates that it's not just McDonald's in the McSpotlight. McDonald's symbolise a wide range of different injustices, abuses and exploitations. Other multinationals also use unethical practises to create maximum profit. The Beyond section examines a variety of other unethical companies.
Highlights	These are the bits we're particularly fond of. For no particular reason and in no particular order. Send us yours and we'll add 'em to the list.
	Guided Tour of McDonald's Website - a McSpotlight all-time classic. in which we enclose McDonald's own website inside ours and add a commentary. Won a few awards for this one. Debating Room - Subverts - bad things happening to McDonald's adverts in the middle of the night. Czech action - blinding picket involving all sorts of dressings-ups and strange goings on. And we have the pictures to prove it. McDonald's spy speaks - an exclusive interview with one of the spies who infiltrated the activist meetings and collected evidence for the McLibel Trial. Caught in the McSpotlight - Ronald's back against the wall. Cartoon classic. Animation - sit back and watch as the world takes action against the curse of the giant M. Japanese Campaigns page - leading the way with all sorts of resources. Banned play - the complete text of a play McDonald's thought they'd seen the last of. Reconstructions - exclusive images from the filming of the McLibel documentary. Mountains Against McDonald's - an inspiring tale of an Australian mountain's successful campaign to keep McDonald's off it's toes. Other McLibels - you thought the McLibel Trial was an isolated incident? Have a look at some of the other people they've threatened with legal action.