RELEASE: Oregon, Vermont docs mark Food Day with ads, actions calling on McDonald’s CEO, local franchise owner to stop marketing junk food to kids

For Immediate Release:
October 20, 2011

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

[BURLINGTON, VT] – To mark the first annual Food Day, local health professionals delivered a powerful message to America’s most recognized fast food brand: stop marketing junk food to children. 

With a full-page ad planned for Food Day in the Burlington Free Press on Monday and today's challenge to local franchise owner Peter Napoli, Vermont healthcare providers joined a fast-growing national initiative that has in a few short months already helped compel dramatic changes in how the fast food industry markets to children.

“Vermont health professionals are lending their support to this initiative because our children’s health can’t wait,” said Jennifer Laurent, a nurse practitioner and obesity researcher. “We can attempt to treat the multiple health consequences of diets high in McDonald’s-style junk food and its promotion one-by-one. But we can also advocate together for changes that will profoundly impact the health of millions of children all at once.”

A growing body of scientific evidence demonstrates that reducing junk food marketing to kids could profoundly reduce the rates of diet-related diseases such as diabetes. The American Academy of Pediatrics was the most recent to draw this conclusion with their recommendation of a national policy prohibiting junk food marketing to kids.

For this reason, Corporate Accountability International, a 35-year-old membership organization, first published an open letter from many of the nation’s top cardiologists, children’s psychologists, pediatricians and other big name health professionals in advance of McDonald’s annual shareholders’ meeting in May. The letter ran in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, and New York with 550 signers, creating a national media stir.

More than 1600 health professionals and institutions have since signed-on.  More than 300 New England healthcare providers and institutions have added their names including leading Vermont health organizations like the Vermont Nurse Practitioner’s Association and Vermont Public Health Association. 

The groundswell has helped compel Jack in the Box to remove toys from kids’ meals, Burger King to retire its mascot, and a host of leading fast food corporations to voluntarily commit to reduce the amount of fat, salt, sugar, and calories in kids’ meals.

Notably, McDonald’s has taken advantage of the attention 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 the burger giant’s 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.

Most concerning, McDonald’s did nothing to reduce its annual $400 million plus budget for marketing its exceedingly unhealthy brand to children. 

“McDonald’s prides itself as an industry leader, but it’s time for the burger giant to play catch-up in addressing its concerning impact on our children’s health,” said Kelle Louaillier, executive director of Corporate Accountability International. “And the responsibility doesn’t just lie with distant executives but with franchise owners like Peter Napoli, who live and work here in New England.”

McDonald’s franchise owners, including Peter Napoli, spend a percentage of their profits on local marketing. And were an owner like Peter Napoli, who owns more than 100 McDonald’s franchise stores in New England, to commit to not directing their local ad dollars at children, it could send a powerful message to other franchise owners and the corporation at large. 

Coinciding with the publication of the ad and challenge to Peter Napoli by New England health professionals was a similar event in Portland, OR. Local health proefessionals and isntitutions called on Napoli’s colleague Don Armstrong, President of the Association of McDonald’s Franchise Owners, to take a similar step. Additionally, last week, members of the American Academy of Pediatrics delivered the open letter to Napoli’s representatives in Boston, where he operates a number of stores. 

“We’re in the midst of a health crisis,” said Sarah Copeland Hanzas, Vermont State Representative and mother of three. “I’m concerned that children, including my own, are constantly inundated by McDonald’s predatory marketing.  It’s time that we level the playing field for parents in Vermont and across the country who are working to feed their kids healthy foods.”

Individuals and institutions can read and sign on to the open letter at www.LetterToMcDonald’s.org.

Click below to read statements from speakers in Burlington, Vermont by:

• Sriram Madhusoodanan, National Campaign Organizer for Value [the] Meal, Corporate Accountability International
• Jennifer Laurent, PhD, FNP; President of Vermont Nurse Practitioner’s Association
  
• Sarah Copeland Hanzas, Vice Chair of the Vermont State Legislature’s Healthcare Committee

Click below to read statements from speakers in Portland, Oregon, by:

• Juliana Shulman, National Campaign Organizer for Value [the] Meal, Corporate Accountability International
• Richard Bruno, medical student at Oregon Health and Science University
• Shari House, Family Nurse Practitioner and Owner of Pearl Health Center

Corporate Accountability International (formerly Infact) is a membership organization that has, for the last 35 years, successfully advanced campaigns protecting health, the environment and human rights. Value [the] Meal is Corporate Accountability International’s campaign dedicated to reversing the global epidemic of diet-related disease by challenging the fast food industry to curb a range of its practices.

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