Ronald the Retiree
Almost 50 years ago, McDonald’s seized an opening to exploit the marketing vulnerabilities of children and in so doing, has become one of the world’s largest corporations and a dominant force in the way we eat, the way our food systems function, and the commercialized environment in which our children grow-up.
Unfortunately the corporation’s success has come at an overwhelming cost, especially to our children’s health. The rates of diet-related disease like type 2 diabetes have risen with the growth of the fast food empire, and are increasingly affecting children at younger and younger ages. In the past 30 years, the percentage of obese children has tripled in children ages 2 to 5, and quadrupled in children ages 6 to 11.
Now parents are ready for McDonald’s to take some responsibility for the obstacles it has put in their way when it comes to healthfully feeding and raising their children. Parents can’t raise children in a vacuum. While parents are responsible for what their kids eat, McDonald’s should take responsibility for the underhanded ways it undermines and challenges that responsibility -- targeting kids with advertisements despite the best efforts of the most observant parents.
Yet McDonald’s has deflected responsibility for making kids sick. In fact, the corporation has led industry efforts to defeat a range of health protections, working to undermine strong local legislation and weaken the language in national menu labeling standards that could provide parents with the kind of information they need to make informed choices about what their kids eat.