Health professionals to McDonald’s: For the children’s sake, let’s retire Ronald McDonald

posted at 7:55 pm on May 18, 2011 by Allahpundit

Remember what I was saying last night about the growing obsession with children’s weight? Yeah.

This is why kids love McD’s burgers and their amazing, amazing fries, I guess. Because of the clown they’ve seen on TV maybe once, who’s never actually at the restaurant whenever they show up.

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.”…

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.

Serious question from an infrequent television viewer: Does Ronald McDonald actually appear in McDonald’s ads anymore? When I think of McD’s commercials, I tend to think of either the schmaltzy “parents and kids bonding over sharing fries” stuff or the “overly chipper register guy/girl describes how awesome McMuffins are” clips. Ronald never much mattered, which makes this particular gripe somehow even stupider than the anti-Happy Meal crusade. At least, with the latter, you can understand how the gimmick lures kids in even while you decry the nannyism involved in taking away a parent’s choice. With Ronald, it’s much harder to see the damage. Amid a galaxy of advertisements aimed at kids, with cartoons and puppets and F/X to make your head spin, some freaky deaky clown is something to worry about because it might get them to talk mom into treating them to a burger once every few weeks? Seriously?

If we’re going to take out a figurehead as allegedly evil as this, I prefer to do it the old-fashioned way by sending in SEALs to shoot him in the face. For your viewing pleasure, here’s CNN reporting on a guy who recently devoured — no joke — his 25,000th Big Mac. Shouldn’t he have died long ago, a victim to the lethal lipid vengeance of Ronald McDonald?

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We get it, carrots and soyburgers are better for us than the food at McDonald’s… now leave us the hell alone.

mankai on May 18, 2011 at 9:10 PM

Mr. Potato Head is getting the axe, too. Stop the madness!!!!

onlineanalyst on May 18, 2011 at 9:11 PM

They can’t retire Ronald, he’s the face of the Ronald McDonald houses, which do great charity work. :(

Emily M. on May 18, 2011 at 9:14 PM

Pretty soon Ronald McDonald will be relegated to the back of the restaurant to puff on a cigarette with Joe Camel.

onlineanalyst on May 18, 2011 at 8:52 PM

Don’t forget poor Spuds McKenzie! He was too appealing and was going to make all of the children heavy drinkers of Lite Beer.

InTheBellyoftheBeast on May 18, 2011 at 9:17 PM

OT: O’Reilly is defending Schwarzenegger. Blames the internet for all world’s ills.
andy85719 on May 18, 2011 at 8:06 PM

BO has always hated the Internet. That explains why he’s usually 3-4 days behind the news cycle.

On topic – I’ve cut down on my Mickey D’s consumption big-time, but I still have a weakness for McNuggets. Yum.

joejm65 on May 18, 2011 at 9:21 PM

http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/no-bologna-facts/

* There’s never been a single study that proves saturated fat causes heart disease.
* As heart-disease rates were skyrocketing in the mid-1900s, consumption of animal fat was going down, not up. Consumption of vegetable oils, however, was going up dramatically.
* Half of all heart-attack victims have normal or low cholesterol. Autopsies performed on heart-attack victims routinely reveal plaque-filled arteries in people whose cholesterol was low (as low as 115 in one case).
* Asian Indians – half of whom are vegetarians – have one of the highest rates of heart disease in the entire world. Yup, that fatty meat will kill you, all right.
* When Morgan Spurlock tells you that a McDonald’s salad supplies almost a day’s allowance of fat, he’s basing that statement on the FDA’s low-fat/high-carbohydrate dietary guidelines, which in turn are based on … absolutely nothing. There’s no science behind those guidelines; they were simply made up by a congressional committee.
* Kids who were diagnosed as suffering from ADD have been successfully treated by re-introducing natural saturated fats into their diets. Your brain is made largely of fat.
* Many epileptics have reduced or eliminated seizures by adopting a diet low in sugar and starch and high in saturated animal fats.
* Despite everything you’ve heard about saturated fat being linked to cancer, that link is statistically weak. However, there is a strong link between sugar and cancer. In Europe, doctors tell patients, “Sugar feeds cancer.”
* Being fat is not, in and of itself, bad for your health. The behaviors that can make you fat – eating excess sugar and starch, not getting any exercise – can also ruin your health, and that’s why being fat is associated with bad health. But it’s entirely possible to be fat and healthy. It’s also possible to be thin while developing Type II diabetes and heart disease.
* Saturated fat and cholesterol help produce testosterone. When men limit their saturated fat, their testosterone level drops. So, regardless of what a famous vegan chef believes, saturated fat does not impair sexual performance.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/196879/fat-head

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-been-a-big-fat-lie.html

http://www.mindbodyhealth.com/lowfatdietmyth.htm

LissaKay on May 18, 2011 at 9:22 PM

I don’t mind that “health professionals” are calling for the retirement of Ronald McDonald.

Where I take offense is when they lobby, collaborate, and use the coercive power of a run away Federal Bureaucracy to impose it, which is a clear assault on liberty, private property rights, and individual freedom.

DeathB4Tyranny on May 18, 2011 at 9:27 PM

Here’s another one. I’m guessing they’ll release these pictures.

BKeyser on May 18, 2011 at 9:29 PM

On topic – I’ve cut down on my Mickey D’s consumption big-time, but I still have a weakness for McNuggets. Yum.

joejm65 on May 18, 2011 at 9:21 PM

Oh for fuxx sake.

hillbillyjim on May 18, 2011 at 9:30 PM

It’s the sugar/carbohydrates coupled with soft drinks and inactivity.

carbon_footprint on May 18, 2011 at 9:32 PM

Here’s another one. I’m guessing they’ll release these pictures.

BKeyser on May 18, 2011 at 9:29 PM

Dude.

Oh the humanity.

hillbillyjim on May 18, 2011 at 9:35 PM

The reason McD’s is popular is because it’s quick and cheap. If you want parents to stop feeding this to the kids then quadruple the prices and make people wait 30 minutes for a single order of small fries. End of story.

vcferlita on May 18, 2011 at 9:40 PM

Sorry, but this is not the way to stop unhealthy prolefeed.

Uncle Sams Nephew on May 18, 2011 at 9:50 PM

This link is to a song from the Documentary “Don Gorske, Mac Daddy”, when Don Gorske (the subject of the CNN piece) was about to eat his 20,000 Big Mac. It’s really funny. And I sang the song, 16 Bites to Glory.

http://www.amazon.com/Ballad-Don-Gorske-Bites-Glory/dp/B0010HXXNI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1305769793&sr=8-2

Republican Yogi on May 18, 2011 at 9:58 PM

Hold up a minute….. is someone seriously saying that, Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun, is somehow bad for you? Sounds a little Un-American to me.

Koa on May 18, 2011 at 9:58 PM

Pretty soon Ronald McDonald will be relegated to the back of the restaurant to puff on a cigarette with Joe Camel.

onlineanalyst on May 18, 2011 at 8:52 PM

Don’t forget poor Spuds McKenzie! He was too appealing and was going to make all of the children heavy drinkers of Lite Beer.

InTheBellyoftheBeast on May 18, 2011 at 9:17 PM

Haha… that sounds like the place to be…in the back room consuming burgers, smokes and liquor… who wants to hang out with those condescending, judge-y salad eaters?

jana on May 18, 2011 at 10:49 PM

All their ads are trendy, urban hip-hop style these days.

n0doz on May 18, 2011 at 11:21 PM

Don’t worry, Ronald McDonald will be drafted bythe administration to support their food maximalization policies. Meanwhile, McDonalds will denonstrate its love of country by payaing all of Ronald’s expenses, and by ferry[ng Obamma loyalists around the country.

davod on May 19, 2011 at 12:04 AM

You know, back in the olden days of 1997 when they went after Joe Camel, people predicted this very thing.

JeffWeimer on May 18, 2011 at 8:00 PM

This is EXACTLY what us smokers (yes we’re all awful awful people) warned you about.

I told you so.

Tim Zank on May 18, 2011 at 8:13 PM

I was an ex-smoker, but I told you so, too. I still miss Joe Camel blowing smoke rings on Times Square.

SukieTawdry on May 19, 2011 at 12:04 AM

I’m guessing that the adminstration isn’t going to be talking about this ‘job lost’. Will Ronald be eligible for extended unemployment benefits and retraining?

joelj31 on May 19, 2011 at 4:31 AM

The 550 health professionals need to shut up and go away if they don’t like Ronald McDonald.

No one is forcing fries into anyone’s mouth. Individuals are responsible for what they watch, what they eat and what they do.

I hope McD’s just ignores these idiots.

dogsoldier on May 19, 2011 at 8:49 AM

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.”

From: Congressional Record–Appendix, pp. A34-A35 (January 10, 1963), Current Communist Goals

Roy Rogers on May 19, 2011 at 9:29 AM

10 to 1, these are the same “health professionals” that were given white coats to stand around on the WH lawn.

ultracon on May 19, 2011 at 9:39 AM

Geez, but Captain Planet was a roll model?

hawkdriver on May 19, 2011 at 9:56 AM

“professional” what’s? Do any of them have kids? My kids did not care about Ronald, they liked the way the fries tasted. (So do I.)

How about we just demand that parents be parents. I can remember telling the kids, “OK that’s enough fries, time for some chicken bites.” I can also remember telling them, “No we are not going to McDonalds.”

Obviously these “professionals” have too much grant money if they have time for this BS. Cut the budget.

Over50 on May 19, 2011 at 10:15 AM

At least, with the latter, you can understand how the gimmick lures kids in even while you decry the nannyism involved in taking away a parent’s choice.

I honestly don’t see a difference. The new toy of the month/week or whatever doesn’t make an appearance in commercials either. The only way a kid will know if there’s something cool in the Happy Meal this week is if parents go there.

At least with Ronald you can always know some statue of him will be there.

Esthier on May 19, 2011 at 11:28 AM

With all the advertising going on, you’d think my four kids would be asking me to eat at fast food restaurants all the time. But I can’t remember the last time they did. Maybe that’s because I know how to pronounce that word that starts with “N” and ends with “O”.

taznar on May 19, 2011 at 11:32 AM

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