Campaign Against McDonald's to Change Unhealthy Marketing Continues With Letter

The health food revolution is not done with McDonald’s.  “McDonald's Under Pressure to Fire Ronald” by Julie Jargon of WallStreetJournal.com reports, “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.” This letter is actually going to be a full-page ad running in major newspapers. The campaign is also asking the company to report it “health footprint” and “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.”

Fast food companies and food makers are under federal pressure to not market unhealthy food to children. The article reports marketing standards are regulated to children between ages 2 to17. The federal agencies setting these standards: FTC, FDA, CDC, & the USDA.

I grew up at a time when Ronald McDonald was a very prominent mascot, along with the Moon Man (awesome if you know who I’m talking about), and Happy Meal toys were a little more extravagant. But despite growing up in a low-income background, I didn’t eat McDonald's on a consistent basis. Fast food, of any kind, was considered a once-in-a-while meal. Times have changed. People are busier today; families don’t always have time to make meals. Also, food makers and fast food companies are getting very clever with value meals/prices. Despite the minimizing of Ronald McDonald and the retirement of the Moon Man, children are exposed to a lot of unhealthy food.  

While parents should have more control over what children eat, I have seen a study that shows children are targeted by unhealthy food commercials. That being said, McDonald’s has been forced to change their food and their image. Despite some progress, they are now being asked to stop marketing the Happy Meal and retire Ronald McDonald. This would essentially change the brand of McDonald's. Why can’t Ronald McDonald become more food cautious instead of having to retire? Why not add more healthy options to the Happy Meal?

I understand where the health food community is coming from; I have recently changed a lot of my eating habits.  But people also need to consider that McDonald's has always had unhealthy food.  This campaign, along with the continued fight against fast food, leaves McDonald's with 3 options: add more choices, stay the same and continue to be scrutinized, or change their complete brand, leaving behind everything they represent? In the end, I completely agree that children do not need to be heavily marketed unhealthy food.  But children will always know what a burger is and McDonald's, along with other fast food places, have a strong brand without the need of heavy marketing. One final note: How do you not market to children? Commercials can exclude child actors, happy meals, Ronald McDonald, and marketing on cartoon channels, but unless McDonald's commercials come on at 2am like a sex chat commercial, kids 2 to 17,especially teens, will be able to see a commercial about a burger and some fries.