McDonald's Under Pressure to Fire Ronald

[Hum]

More than 550 health professionals and organizations have signed a letter to McDonald's Corp. asking the maker of Happy Meals to stop marketing junk food to kids and retire Ronald McDonald.

The letter, slated to run in the form of full-page ads in six metropolitan newspapers around the country on Wednesday, acknowledges that "the contributors to today's (health) epidemic are manifold and a broad societal response is required. But marketing can no longer be ignored as a significant part of this massive problem."

"We are committed to responsible advertising and take our communications to children very seriously," McDonald's said in a statement. "We understand the importance of children's health and nutrition, and are committed to being part of the dialogue and solution. We serve high quality food, and our Happy Meals offer choice and variety in portions just for kids. Parents tell us they appreciate our Happy Meal choices."

The campaign is organized by the nonprofit watchdog group Corporate Accountability International.

The McDonald's letter, scheduled to run in ads in the Chicago Sun-Times, New York Metro, Boston Metro, San Francisco Examiner, Minneapolis City Pages and Baltimore City Paper, has been signed by such groups as the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Chicago Hispanic Health Coalition, as well as by well-known nutritionists and doctors like Andrew Weil, a doctor and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine.

The campaign also includes an effort to get McDonald's to produce a report assessing its "health footprint." A shareholder's resolution, submitted by the watchdog group and The Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, calls on McDonald's to tally the financial impact of fighting various measures like the San Francisco ordinance passed last year that established nutritional standards for kids' meals that come with toys. It will be voted on at McDonald's annual meeting on Thursday.

The letter from the health providers urges McDonald's to cease marketing food high in salt, fat, sugar and calories to kids, from the use of Ronald McDonald to Happy Meal toys.

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[KillTheIrishman]

Wish in one and and... well you know. This will never happen.

[remixedcat]

uhhhh ronald's the mascot for the company... not gonna happen

[Packet1009]

perceived entitlement is a wonderful thing...

[-KJ]

I don't think they're under any kind of pressure.

[ArialBlue]

But if we do not have fat salty food, then there would be less fat people, and if there are less fat people, we will have less people to look at in wonder and disgust. :(

[winlonghorn]

Again the parents place the blame anywhere but themselves. It is the parents' responsibility to monitor what kids eat and how they behave. It worked prior to now, so what makes this generation of parents and kids any different. It is a real shame!

[briangw]

Again the parents place the blame anywhere but themselves. It is the parents' responsibility to monitor what kids eat and how they behave. It worked prior to now, so what makes this generation of parents and kids any different. It is a real shame!

Agreed. We can point fingers at everyone else except for those who are actually in charge of their children.

[_neutrino Veteran]

i really have not seen him that much in their advertisements lately so it probably would not be that big of a deal for them to rebrand then again with all the people that are pushing for the company to stop marketing to children this might get passed you never know.

[winlonghorn]

Agreed. We can point fingers at everyone else except for those who are actually in charge of their children.

Exactly! It is called lazy parenting! They need to take responsibility for what happens with their kids, but it is quite clear that "responsibility" is a dirty word these days! I was born in the early 80's and even from then all the way through the 90's, if myself or any other kid would have asked for candy or a meal at mcdonalds and our parents said no, the answer was "NO!". If we would have snuck and eaten it anyway, we would have at least been grounded.

[neufuse Veteran]

that's like Wendy's fireing wendy... not going to happen

[DocM]

I'm so bloody sick & tired of people like this. Damned PC'ers can go to hell IMO.

[Travelar]

Again the parents place the blame anywhere but themselves. It is the parents' responsibility to monitor what kids eat and how they behave. It worked prior to now, so what makes this generation of parents and kids any different. It is a real shame!

Correcto-mundo. Easier to complain and lobby than to police your own kids....

[FMH]

"We understand the importance of children's health and nutrition, and are committed to being part of the dialogue and solution. We serve high quality food, and our Happy Meals offer choice and variety in portions just for kids. Parents tell us they appreciate our Happy Meal choices.".

I LOVE McDonald's response. Such an elegant lie!

[FMH]

Exactly! It is called lazy parenting! They need to take responsibility for what happens with their kids, but it is quite clear that "responsibility" is a dirty word these days! I was born in the early 80's and even from then all the way through the 90's, if myself or any other kid would have asked for candy or a meal at mcdonalds and our parents said no, the answer was "NO!". If we would have snuck and eaten it anyway, we would have at least been grounded.

It's not about parents and responsibility. It's about marketing. Which is equivalent of 'hypnosis'.

[Hum]

But if we do not have fat salty food, then there would be less fat people, and if there are less fat people, we will have less people to look at in wonder and disgust. :(

Kind of describes Justin Bieber. :laugh:

[neufuse Veteran]

It's not about parents and responsibility. It's about marketing. Which is equivalent of 'hypnosis'.

it's called have your own brain... make informed decisions not based on what the companies say, but research... something people in this world need to learn how to do anymore... parents seem to do it when their kids are babies, finding the best baby food for them, then all the sudden that goes away and their are brain washed into mcdonalds because of a clown? I don't think so.. they could think in the past they can think again and control their kids... yeah sure kids will whine about not going to get their happy meal, but if you don't introduce them to it to start with, it's not a larger issue... no one forces you to take your kid to mcdonlds when they are young, thats the parents decision

[KingCracker]

[Twiddle]

Screw them. The Ronald McDonald House Charities has done more for kids than these groups ever will.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_McDonald_House_Charities

Granted, they are specifically talking about Ronald McDonald being a selling point for McD's food, having that mascot has helped millions of kids around the world.

[redvamp128]

No problem-- He can be replaced... everyone seems to forget the mascot McDonalds had before the clown.....

... Speedee .... They could just return to the classic masscot... since Ronald first appeared in 1963,,,

[DocM]

Screw them. The Ronald McDonald House Charities has done more for kids than these groups ever will.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_McDonald_House_Charities

>

AMEN!! One of the best examples of being a good corporate ctizen IMO.

[bjoswald]

Kids can't even have a damn clown now? First they took away their Happy Meal toy, now they want to get rid of Ronald. Are they trying to kill the company or just turn it into another boring restaurant? Ronald has been the mascot forever, and now he's in jeopardy because stupid parents can't control what their kids eat and the dumb ass government -- whom I'd trust the LEAST with the safety of children -- think they need one more thing to regulate. It's getting way, way out-of-hand, folks.

[Hum]

^ If I was a young kid, I would not want to be sitting on Ronald's lap. :s

[reactionary007]

I could go for some of their fries... nom nom nom... the Gold Standard :)

[srbeen]

haha! Really? 6 metro papers? I guess when education don't work...... and the uneducated take a stab at fixing the problem.

In Canada for example:

http://www.smoke-fre...da-warnings.htm

educating people STILL didn't make them want to stop smoking.. these pictures just drove people to buy separate containers, wraps, or something else for their tobacco. So they up the prices and made it mandatory that the warnings take up 75% of the package. But people STILL buy them! weird.

So, if putting those disgusting photos on cigarettes as well as every store requiring them to be out of sight so you have to ask for them didn't discourage people - how will axing Ronald McDonald and releasing Ronald McDonald 2 work?

Maybe a better plan is for McDonalds to start putting pictures of fat people who cant tie their shoes or something on happy meal boxes along with;

"did you know you would have to run for 4 hours and 32 minutes to burn the calories off from JUST your cheezeburger?"

I KNOW when I was a kid it wasn't Ronald McDonald who drove me to the place. the damn playland and brand new Nintendo systems and toys with my food was..