PERC UE ES eee E EEE EELS

a ist]. of the very thing it portrayed: McDonald's censorship of the media.

So we turned to new forms of distribution: home video, cable & satellite, film festivals, mobile solar-powered cinemas and,
of course, the internet. (Watch the whole film at www.spanner.org/mclibel/vdo). Last month we held a ‘Global Screening
to celebrate the start of the defendants’ appeal in the High Court. From just one email message, 104 Screenings in 19
countries were held and we estimate that about 8 million people watched the film. Which kind of makes me think that
there's a lot of untapped potential in email. As a result of the screening, we have also secured our first ‘real’ broadcast, al-
though | won't tempt fate by mentioning which country.

Not that | believe our efforts are going to make any inroads into McDonald's runaway success. Only yesterday someone
said to me that some friends of his had stumbled across McSpotlight and were so outraged that from now on they'll only go
to Burger King. Oh dear. All we hoped to do was to provide easily-accessible information to anyone who wanted to make
informed choices about whether to give their money to multinational corporations. We never forced anyone to visit
McSpotlight or watch the film. Which contrasts nicely with McDonald's attitude of spending 2 billion dollars each year on
ensuring that no-one can turn on a TV, walk down a street, participate in sports or go to school without a red-wigged clown
barging into their consciousness. Mammals and dinosaurs.

One last point. Did you know that the concept of the Ronald McDonald Houses for sick children was invented by an adver-
tising agency?

McSpotlight: http://www.mespotlight.org

McSpot guided tour of McDonald's website: http://www.mcspotlight.org/tours/
McLibel documentary: http:/Awww.spanner.org/mclibel/

Watch the film: http://www.spanner.org/mclibel/vdo

Screenings: http://www.spanner.org/mclibel/distribution/globalscreeninglist.htm!
The making: http:/www.spanner.org/mclibeV/reviews/press/guardian_jun98.html

Franny Armstrong is director of the McLibel documentary and obsessive McSpotlight fan.

RECLAIM THE STREETS
THE FILM AND OTHER
MEDIA TACTICS

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THE DISORGANISATION

Reclaim the Streets (RtS) cannot be understood as a campaign, although some of its methods are very similar. There are
now RtS groups in thirty cities organi illegal street parties. Most of these groups only exist for the event, and many of
the activists are involved in local campaigns during the rest of the year. There is no membership or official line although
many would like to see a wider global strategy. As a movement, RtS is only four years old, and it could grow in unpre-
dictable ways.