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Mar 29, 2016 Leave a Comment

The Trouble with Free McDonald’s Breakfast at Public Schools

In today’s The Lunch Tray post, Bettina Elias Siegel provides a very well-reasoned viewpoint on why McDonald’s offering free breakfast at public schools throughout Houston on standardized testing days is problematic.

Highlights:

  • “McDonald’s has a troubling history of doing virtually everything it can to get its brand into schools – and in front of as many sets of impressionable young eyes as possible.”
  • “McDonald’s current U.S. president is actually on record as telling franchise owners they “have got to be in the schools. When you look at the [financial] performance relative to peers of the operators [whose] restaurants are part of the community–it’s significant. … [T]his is an essential part of being an McDonald’s owner operator. This is our heritage. And schools are a big piece of it.”
  • “It’s that cynical desire to exploit kids to improve sales which animates a myriad of McDonald’s school-related marketing campaigns, including McTeacher’s Nights (a promotion that’s apparently loathed by many actual teachers), McDonald’s reading challenges, and school visits from Ronald McDonald, to name just a few.”

We agree. And, while it is good news that McDonald’s is no longer a sponsor of the California Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ annual conference, we were disappointed to learn that the fast food giant is sponsoring this year’s Michigan Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics conference. Michigan RDs — mobilize!

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Categories: Problematic Sponsorship Tags: Bettina Elias-Siegel, marketing to children, McDonald's

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