Burlington Free Press: Health professionals challenge McDonald's marketing tactics

Group wants company to stop promoting junk food to children

By Tim Johnson

October 21, 2011

A Boston-based advocacy organization has launched a campaign calling on the McDonald’s Corp. and its franchisees “to stop marketing junk food to children.”                  

Contending that child-centered promotions of “unhealthy food” feed the national surge in childhood obesity, Corporate Accountability International held a news conference in Burlington Thursday and directed its message to Peter Napoli, whose Essex Junction-based Napoli Group owns 20 McDonald’s outlets in Vermont and New York. There is no McDonald’s in Burlington; according to the McDonald’s website there are eight in Chittenden County. 

“Were an owner like Peter Napoli to commit to not directing his local ad dollars at children,” said Sriram Madhussoodanan, campaign organizer, in a prepared statement, “it would send a powerful message to other franchise owners and the corporation at large.” 

A request to the Napoli Group for comment was answered by Nicole Dinoia, a Boston-based McDonald’s spokeswoman who said she was replying on behalf of Napoli and McDonald’s USA. 

“McDonald’s does not advertise unhealthy food to children,” DiNoia wrote in an email. “We are committed to responsible advertising and take it very seriously. We were among the first in 2006 to support the U.S. Better Business Bureau’s advertising guidelines for kids. We follow system wide guidelines on how we responsibly communicate with children about balanced food choices and being active.” 

Madhussoodanan said objectional marketing techniques include the pairing of popular media images, such as Shrek or Captain America, with unhealthy foods or sugar beverages. He said a letter urging McDonald’s to change course has been signed by 1,600 health professionals nationally, including many in New England. The letter will appear Monday in full-page ads taken out by Corporate Accountability International in the Burlington Free Press and in a newspaper in Portland, Ore. 

Among the letter’s signers is Jennifer Laurent, president of the Vermont Nurse Practitioners Association and University of Vermont obesity researcher, who appeared at the news conference and said that being obese shortens a child’s ultimate lifespan by nine years. 

Also present Thursday was Rep. Sarah Copeland-Hanzas, D-Orange, vice chairwoman of the House Committee on Health Care and a mother of three. She said McDonald’s corporate leaders – unlike their counterparts at some other fast-food chains – have not acceded to demands that they cut back child marketing and make substantial nutritional improvements. 

DiNoia said McDonald’s is “listening to what really matters to our customers” and offering “more choice and variety than ever before.” 

“Our new Happy Meal will automatically include apple slices and a new smaller size French fries (1.1 ounces) and the choice of fat-free chocolate milk or 1 percent low-fat white milk,” DiNoia said. 

Laurent and Copeland-Hanzas said the substitution of apple slices for fries is nutritionally inconsequential. 

Corporate Accountability International (formerly called Infact) is a membership organization that since 1977 has waged campaigns against what it calls “irresponsible and dangerous actions by corporate giants.” 

Asked about local marketing, DiNoia replied: 

“McDonald’s franchisees plan their local marketing efforts in conjunction with national plans.” She added: “McDonald’s has always been committed to providing wholesome, balanced menu options for all of our customers, including our youngest guests.” She also cited the Napoli Groups’ support for charitable causes such as the Ronald McDonald House, Special Olympics and Prevent Child Abuse Vermont.

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