Press Release
Statement from Deborah Lapidus, Senior Organizer, Corporate Accountability International
May 20, 2010Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I am Deborah Lapidus from Corporate Accountability International. Our Value [the] Meal campaign challenges McDonald’s and its’ competitors to value our children’s health over short-term profits. It builds on 30 years of successful public education and action campaigns to compel corporations from Nestlé to Philip Morris to halt life-threatening abuses.
Today, Mr. Skinner, our kids are getting sick at an alarming rate from the food they eat. One in three kids born today will become diabetic as a result of diet. And diet-related health problems already cost at least $147 billion each year in the U.S.
So what is behind these trends? Is it that our kids are becoming less active? There is no conclusive evidence to support that.
Is it a gradual breakdown in parental responsibility – parents allowing their kids to eat too much McDonald’s? The evidence is actually to the contrary.
Is it predatory marketing to children? Maybe you can tell me. Your corporation spends hundreds of millions each year advertising to kids, a practice you pioneered in the late 50’s and early 60’s with the iconic Ronald McDonald, who today remains the centerpiece of your predatory kids’ marketing campaigns.
In the last year, people across the country documented the clown:
- in schools, rewarding kids with free burgers and Chicken McNuggets for meeting educational goals;
- at children’s libraries reading from a book titled “I’m Hungry” prior to handing out McDonald’s gift certificates;
- even in hospital lobbies.
That’s just a sampler, not to mention McDonald’s longstanding practice of siting franchises with Ronald statues next to schools
Well, half of parents with kids under 18 would like to see the shenanigans put to rest according to a recent national poll by Lake Research Partners. It’s clear the public is unimpressed with the feeble argument that our kids need a “brand ambassador” from the world’s largest fast food chain.
Today we are here to ask, will McDonald’s answer the American public’s call to Retire Ronald?