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Gordon's Republic

McDonald's CEO says he can't leave the kids alone

Comments:15 Add your comment

I have to be careful here or McDonald's will come down on me with a one ton burger of legal fun, but CEO Jim Skinner says he can't stop advertising at children. He just can't leave them alone.

The world' largest purveyor of junk food, of fatty crap, that helped turn America (not to mention the UK and elsewhere) into a nation of obese sugar-addicted, unhealthy individuals, has rejected the idea cutting back on advertising to children.

He comes across like a corporate paedophile, like the child catcher from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang".

Under the guise of promoting physical activity, McDonald's will continue to target children.

"The idea that some people would have us go dark on communications to kids is a mistake because the communication needs to be positive," McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner told Reuters.

Skinner was also unhappy that chief happiness officer and company mascot, Ronald McDonald, was compared by some to Joe Camel, the Camel cigarette mascot pulled from ads for Camel cigarettes after drawing the ire of regulators for appealing to children.

How could he take issue? McDonald’s has a clown because it wants to target kids. It wants them to eat burgers, fries and milkshake as often as possible. It might say take a walk, but it’s take a walk with a Big Mac.

"Ronald McDonald has never sold food to kids in the history of his existence," Skinner said.

It doesn't matter that in recent months, McDonald's dumped mention of food from websites aimed at children - http://www.happymeal.com and http://www.ronald.com kids' – and is pushing physical activities, it is still targeting children. Same thing with its recent tie-up with 'Shrek the Third'. The fast-food giant is not a charity and while it might have used Shrek to push its healthier menu items (apple slices and low-fat milk) it still wants those kids through the door.

"Most of our websites and the communications we have with kids is all about activity. They know they can count on us to help them as opposed to simply hawking food to them."

What planet is Skinner on? Burger Giant Planet. BGP. Sounds a bit like BFG. Wait that gives me an idea *gets script writing note pad*...

UPDATE: I concede Rory. Enjoy your lunch. Those cheesy breadcrumb gooey things look very appetising.

Published Jul 17 2007, 10:13 AM by Gordon Macmillan

Filed under: McDonald's

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Comments

by Rory Sutherland

July 17, 2007 11:04 AM

It's strange, but I never hear middle-class pinkos complaining when Wagamama or Pizza Express hand out free crayons. Either dedicate yourself to senseless anti-american rants or write sensibly about diet, exercise and advertising to children. Please try not to conflate the two. And how does this sit with Campaign's attempt to protect advertising freedoms exactly?

by Gordon Macmillan

July 17, 2007 1:50 PM

There are advertising freedoms and advertising freedoms. This is clearly not an anti American rant. Anyone who knows me, is quite aware that I'm as pro-American as they come. Pizza Hut targeting children is no different. As for Wagamama I wouldn't know I wouldn't eat in there. I don't work on Campaign Rory. One has to know some basic facts before responding to a blog, but I am sure a thankyou basket of McDonald's goo is on its way to you as I type.

by Rory Sutherland

July 17, 2007 4:16 PM

Calorie consumption by children has declined for years - and continues to do so. It is diminishing levels of exercise that are creating obesity. In an age of Nintendo and 500 channel TV, McDonalds provides one of the few incentives for a child actually to leave their house. Of course McDonald's has faults. But the role it has to play as whipping boy for the ill-health of the world is wholly disproportionate - possibly the single largest reason it now needs to advertise is to counter ludicrous adverse PR. British children have, after all, been eating beef, bread and potatoes for a few hundred years without obvious ill effects. McDonald's has democratised eating out, providing a safe clean environment often in unpromising parts of town. Chinese takeaways are, incidentally, vastly more numerous - but that would be picking on family-owned restaurants run by a minority ethnic group. It is perfectly reasonable for McDonalds to seek to protect its brand. As a publication called Brand Republic might sensibly recognise.

by Rory Sutherland

July 17, 2007 4:39 PM

And another thing..... it's bad enough that my poor daughters have to grow up in a country where there's no Taco Bell or Arby's without people going around attacking what little convenience food we have.

by Rory Sutherland

July 17, 2007 4:39 PM

Or Chick Fil-A.

by Gordon Macmillan

July 18, 2007 8:26 AM

Whip, whip and more whipping. Burger King and as for Taco Bell as the man said there is a fire in the disco and a fire in the Taco Bell for a good reason. If you think that McDonald's is one of the few incentives to leave the house things have fallen to a low state indeed. Protect the brand? You presume that all brands are worth protecting and that is not the case.

by Rory Sutherland

July 18, 2007 12:58 PM

It is a business well worth protecting, never mind a brand. It provides amazingly consistent, hygenic, food through a network of family-friendly restaurants - what's not to like? It is also the only affordable option for most people (I am pretty rich, but still wince at the £55 I have to spend every time I take the family to Pizza Express). Why do otherwise sane people object to this? Incidentally, as an (almost) fellow vegetarian, I would much prefer that McDonald's did what it did while serving vegetarian food. But for that I shall have to wait for my fellow Britons to change their tastes. Amazingly, The Vegetarian Society received flack for helping the chain in the creation of their new Veggieburger - this seems odd, unless you believe that vegetarianism is somehow more virtuous if it requires a degree of inconvenience. I am rather keen to see the meat trade diminish - for reasons of Animal cruelty and the environmental damage caused by the livestock industry. I am baffled by how little the Veggie movement has sought to suggest vegetarianism as a solution to climate change. But I don't have any objection to inexpensive fast food.

by Janet Belmot

July 18, 2007 1:39 PM

I've got eye-witnesses accounts claiming that Taco Bell delivers meat through a hose. This is too close to colon/bowels for my liking. Also, I can NOT imagine the look on people's faces if I meat-hosed them down at my next dinner party. It sounds like the burger are on "rich-man" Rory. Just make sure my meat comes from a grill, not a hose please!

by Gordon Macmillan

July 18, 2007 3:40 PM

I heard you were worth a few bob Rory -;) Pizza Express makes me wince as well. As a pizza fan (broccoli and fresh tomoato with a sprinkling of rocket from my local pizzeria £6 if you must ask) its pizzas are just not the real thing. As McDonald's i used to eat its veggie burgers of old, but they were the poor relation on the menu and preferred the stodgy bean burger from Burger King.

by Rory Sutherland

July 18, 2007 4:11 PM

Apparently McDonald's are bringing out a new, super veggie burger developed in conjunction with the Veg Soc. Taco Bell does sometthing called the bean burrito, which is about 90,000 calories for 69-cents. If more widely deployed it could end world hunger.

by Gordon Macmillan

July 18, 2007 4:31 PM

Cheap good food to adults that isn't covered in fat - just walk into any half decent sandwich shop and pick up a tuna sandwich and salad, pasta or rice or...oh its too easy.

by Rory Sutherland

July 20, 2007 11:21 AM

Tuna is surely unsustainable, whereas the pollock in the Fillet O' Fish comes from abundant Pacific stock. And there is often more fat in a Pret sandwich than a Big Mac.....

by Gordon Macmillan

July 20, 2007 12:16 PM

I would no more recommend Pret a Porker than McD. And line-caught skipjack tuna is sustainable.

by Rory Sutherland

July 21, 2007 1:11 PM

Your roving reporter has today visited the Drive-Thru Lane of McDonald's in Otford and can confirm that those cheesy things pictured above are rather good. They are technically called Mozzarella Dippers, and are part of the Summer BarBQ range.

by Gordon Macmillan

July 23, 2007 8:35 AM

You ate them? You should get a medal. I'm thinking something cheesy.

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