Statement: VT Nurse Practitioner's Association tells McDonald's to stop marketing to kids

By: Jennifer Laurent, PhD, FNP; President of Vermont Nurse Practitioner’s Association

For Immediate Release:
October 20, 2011

Contact:
Christine Chester, 617-695-2525
Sriram Madhusoodanan, 857-413-6428

Hello, my name is Jennifer Laurent. I’m a family nurse practitioner, President of the Vermont Nurse Practitioner Association, and obesity researcher in the Department of Nursing at UVM. I’m also one of more than 1600 signatories to the open letter.

One of the fundamentals of being a nurse practitioner is helping children and families get healthy and stay healthy. I am speaking today out of concerns for the current and future health of the children, adults, and families that I care for now and in the future. We know that being obese as a child shortens a child’s life span by approximately 9 years. These statistics are similar to that of lifetime smokers. Just as worrisome is that children and adolescents are now being diagnosed with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, liver problems, and other health problems related only to being overweight or obese. Problems that in the past, only affected adults.

One of the biggest contributors to the obesity epidemic is the consumption of unhealthy foods and sugar beverages that are so heavy advertised and targeted to the likes of children. Corporations, such as MacDonald’s and others, brand their junk food with adored and respected media characters and/or media programs. No one can watch TV, movies, or play video games without an association between corporate America and their junk food. McDonald’s alone spends $400 in marketing their products to children.

And as a health professional working with children, adults, and their families suffering from diet-related diseases, I see the human toll of fast food and fast food marketing every day. I see bullying of obese children. I see children that cannot participate in gym class and sports because they cannot keep up. I see children who are ashamed and depressed about their weight. I diagnose children and adolescents with pre-diabetes, fatty liver, and depression related to their weight

Through this initiative by Corporate Accountability International, the public health community is rallying behind a simple message to McDonald’s: stop making the next generation sick, simply stop. End your junk food marketing to kids. And that is why I am signing my name and calling on Mr. Peter Napoli, the owner of more than 100 McDonald’s franchise locations between Boston and Burlington to help us reverse this disturbing trend. You have the power to change the health of our future generations. I ask that on behalf of hundreds of children, adults, and families that I care for, stop marketing junk food to children.

In May, Corporate Accountability International released an open letter to McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner that boasted 550 signers, all urging the corporation to stop marketing junk food to kids. Since then, more than 1000 health professionals and institutions have added their names. This insurgence has led to fast food chain Jack in the Box removing toys from kids’ meals, Burger King to retiring its mascot, and a host of other fast food corporations to voluntarily commit to reduce the amount of fat, salt, sugar, and calories in kids’ meals.

Notably absent, even from the recent industry-proposed, voluntary, self-policing commitment was McDonald’s.Instead, McDonald’s took advantage of the moment to promote their iconic Happy Meal, adding apple slices to all Happy Meals and reducing the portion size of its kids’ fries. The move did nothing to address their ongoing failure to meet even the most basic nutritional recommendations for kids’ meals put forth by the World Health Organization, Federal Trade Commission, or Centers for Disease Control.

So it is for these reasons that I am signing my name and encouraging my colleagues to do the same. As the letter states, as health professionals “we know the contributors to today’s 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 ask Mr. Napoli to become an advocate for Healthy People 2020 and take our message to Corporate McDonald’s CEO, Mr. Jim Skinner. 

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