Corporate Watchdog Launches Campaign to “Retire Ronald McDonald”

Comparing fast-food advertising icon Ronald McDonald to Joe Camel, Corporate Accountability International has initiated a campaign calling on McDonald’s Corp. to “Retire Ronald.” The campaign is based on a report, “Clowning with Kids’ Health,” that calls the character “the product of a well-orchestrated and shrewd marketing strategy” that targets those most vulnerable to food-industry marketing—children.

The report traces the development of Ronald McDonald, now claimed to be as recognizable as Santa Claus, and notes how the character is even used on report cards in schools. Decrying the “unhealthy food” that the character promotes and the industrial supply chain fast food supports, the report calls on McDonald’s to stop using celebrities or cartoon characters to promote its products and urges individuals to support local efforts to remove food advertising from schools, libraries and playgrounds.

Corporate Accountability International is a Boston-based corporate watchdog nonprofit whose advisory board includes nutrition professor Marion Nestle, public health lawyer Michele Simon and food expert Frances Moore Lappé. It claims responsibility for changing corporate behavior, including moving General Electric out of nuclear weapons production, and “spearheading grassroots efforts behind the passage of the global tobacco treaty.” The Center for Science in the Public Interest has joined others in calling for individuals to email the McDonald’s president and CEO urging him to retire Ronald McDonald. See Food Politics, April 1, 2010; CSPI Action Alert, April 5, 2010.