McDonald's Is Poisoning Consumers -- And Blaming Everyone Else for the Catastrophic Societal Costs

By Stacey Folsom, AlterNet. Posted June 24, 2009.

This alone should give shareholders pause, despite CEO Skinner’s effusive earnings report this May. But there’s more reason to believe all this corporation touches doesn’t turn the golden color of its French fries.

A recent Columbia University and UC Berkeley study found a sizable increase in the rates of obesity in teens who attend school within 1/10 of a mile of fast food chains like McDonald’s. Earlier studies conclude the zoning of fast food is anything but accidental or arbitrary. Fully one-third of schools nationwide have at least one fast food restaurant or convenience store within walking distance.

To further paint the picture, Corporate Accountability International has developed an online mapping tool that allows parents and policymakers to get a sense of how McDonald’s and others cluster around our children’s schools.

This brings up Line 4 – “It’s not our responsibility that kids are getting sick from eating too much of our food, that’s on parents.” Well, McDonald’s certainly isn’t doing parents any favors when it takes advantage of every space parents cannot control to make lifelong customers of young people.

It’s not just the promotion and marketing in and around schools, the siting of restaurants or cleverly disguised product promotion like the McDonald’s All-American Reading Challenge – it’s the actual sale of branded fast food in schools (which occurs in one out of every five schools).

As the largest fast food corporation, McDonald’s can do better than this. It can stop zoning restaurants next to schools and selling branded fast food in schools. It can also provide an example of industry best practices by halting all sports sponsorships and marketing that appeals to children.

These types of actions will signal to shareholders that the corporation cherishes its family-friendly ethos over the lip service of its current public relations. It will also help ensure McDonald’s “value” doesn’t come at the expense of our children’s health.

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Stacey Folsom is the Development Director of Corporate Accountability International, an organization devoted to battling corporate abuse.

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