In Educational Materials
“Clowns and teachers are both figures that children trust. Just like using teachers to bring kids into McDonald’s, to sell and serve them fast food, the use of Ronald McDonald as a marketing tool exploits that trust.”
-Rebecca Coolidge, first grade teacher, South San Francisco, California
When it comes to marketing to kids in and around schools, Ronald’s employer has also been busy figuring out ways to engage kids in the classroom…and even to bring the classroom to McDonald’s.
Using the underfunding of the nation’s schools as a marketing opportunity, McDonald’s conceived “McTeacher’s Night,” a fundraising program that puts teachers behind the register for a night. In exchange for their free labor, McDonald’s donates a percentage of the evening’s profits to the local school.
The program generates great local public relations for McDonald’s as well as a spike in sales from the parents, children, and community members who are encouraged to eat while teachers work. Children are encouraged to draw pictures of Ronald McDonald and to decorate the walls of the restaurant. In exchange for the boost in sales, favorable public relations and opportunity to market to its target demographic, schools receive an average of $800 for a night’s work.
For further free publicity in schools, McDonald’s rewards children with free burgers and Chicken McNuggets for meeting educational goals and academic achievement through programs like the “McSpellit Club.” In one Michigan elementary school, McDonald’s even installed a mural of Ronald and a “Mini McDonald’s” restaurant where students could redeem academic achievement awards for their favorite fast food.
In Seminole County, Florida, McDonald’s took their fast food reward program a step further. Grade school children received their report cards in envelopes featuring Ronald and offers for free Happy Meals in exchange for good grades, attendance, and behavior.
McDonald’s also develops “sponsored educational material” as yet another means of penetrating schools with its marketing. One McDonald’s first grade program asks kids to design a McDonald’s restaurant and provides information about applying for a McDonald’s job.
Apparently, it’s never too early to start recruiting!
Parents are, however, challenging such practices. In Seminole County, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and area parents pressured the county into canceling the first grade program..
You’ve got to give it to the “hamburger-happy” huckster. He’s mastered some clever means of marketing burgers to children and using the adults kids trust most to validate his product…despite its effect on public health.