McDonald's Meeting Today Considers Ronald's Retirement

May 19, 2011 - PRLog -- At a meeting of its shareholders today, McDonald's will consider a proposal by many leading childhood and anti-obesity experts and advocates to retire their mascot Ronald, someone who is a legal, public relations, and even religious liability, says the man behind two law suits against the golden arches. http://lettertomcdonalds.org/

McDonald's have already lost over $20 million in fat law suits and is facing still another - already upheld by no fewer than five judges - for contributing to the obesity of minors, notes public interest law professor John Banzhaf, the father of the very successful movement - with ten out of ten victories - to use legal action as a weapon against obesity, just as he used it as a weapon against smoking.

Ronald is also a legal liability in another ongoing lawsuit accusing McDonald's of unfairly using toys to lure children into its restaurants in violation of the California protection laws.  The use of a clown to lure kids under the golden arches obviously undermines McDonald's argument that it isn't unfairly appealing to kids. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/19/us-mcdonalds-la...

Reliance upon a clown to sell calorie laden foods also undermines McDonald's from a public relations point of view because it undercuts the company's argument that parents are and should be responsible for what young children eat, so that childhood obesity is the fault of parents rather than fast food chains.

McDonald's makes it even worse when it sends Ronald into schools as a "Health Ambassador" or "active lifestyle advocate" to teach children that they can continue to eat junk food if only they would get a moderate amount of exercise.  "It's like having Joe Camel teach children that they can smoke if only they don't inhale," says Banzhaf, noting the virtual impossibility of working off the many calories in typical McDonald's meals through exercise.  http://www.pr-inside.com/natl-ad-campaign-targets-ronald-...

There's even some indications that the use of Ronald McDonald is arousing concern on religious grounds, notes Banzhaf, pointing to a recent campaign against McDonald's by an order of nuns.

"Ronald McDonald is a big fat liability to a company which lures children into eating too much big fat food," says the public interest lawyer and law professor who brought the first successful fat law suit against McDonald's, advised on the most famous one, and inspired and appeared in the movie "Super Size Me."

JOHN F. BANZHAF III, B.S.E.E., J.D., Sc.D.
Professor of Public Interest Law
George Washington University Law School,
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor,
Fellow, World Technology Network,
Founder, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
Creator, Banzhaf Index of Voting Power
2000 H Street, NW, Suite S402
Washington, DC 20052, USA
(202) 994-7229 // (703) 527-8418
http://banzhaf.net/

# # #

John F. Banzhaf III is a Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University Law School [http://banzhaf.net/] where he is best known for his work regarding smoking [http://ash.org/], obesity [http://banzhaf.net/obesitylinks.html], etc.