SourceWatch needs your financial support to survive and thrive. If you've found this information on the people, organizations, and issues shaping the public agenda helpful, please make a tax-deductible donation now.

McDonald's

From SourceWatch

Jump to: navigation, search


This article is part of the Center for Media & Democracy's spotlight on global corporations.

McDonalds

McDonald's is the world's largest fast-food retailer "with more than 30,000 restaurants in 119 countries serving 47 million customers each day". [1]

Contents

Product placement on morning news shows

In July 2008, the Las Vegas Sun reported that, for two weeks, "two cups of McDonald’s iced coffee (BUY!) sit on the Fox 5 TV news desk, a punch-you-in-the-face product placement (BUY!) to chase down your morning news" on local station KVVU. The "punch-you-in-the-face product placement" agreement lasted six months. KVVU's news director claimed that the "nontraditional revenue source" won't impact his station's reporting. [1] But an executive with the marketing firm that negotiated the deal, Omnicom's Karsh/Hagan, told the New York Times that "the coffee cups would most likely be whisked away if KVVU chooses to report a negative story about McDonald's." McDonald's has similar product placement agreements with "WFLD in Chicago, which is owned and operated by Fox; on KCPQ in Seattle, a Fox affiliate owned by the Tribune Company; and on Univision 41 in New York City." Other stations owned by KVVU parent Meredith Corporation, "including WFSB, the CBS affiliate in Hartford, Conn., and WGCL, the CBS affiliate in Atlanta -- are also accepting product placements on their morning shows." [2]

McDonald's and obesity

Following unsuccessful class actions against fast food retailers in the U.S. over obesity, McDonald's has sought to shield itself from future actions by promoting 'personal responsibility' and diversifying its menu options and changing its advertising style. In April 2004 McDonald's announced its commitment to "balanced lifestyles." "Our customers were telling us that they wanted more choice and balance. We started working vigorously on the plan to pull things together. A lot of the stuff that was announced today was in the making for one or two years," Ken Barun, corporate VP for balanced lifestyles and CEO and president of the Ronald McDonald House Charities told PR Week. [2]

McDonald's announced it would "educate, assist, and engage consumers in ways that change individual behavior, resulting in better food/energy (calorie-in/calorie-out) balance in their lives." Initiatives included the "Go Active! Adult Happy Meal" which included a premium salad, bottled water and a pedometer. The program gained the endorsement of the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson. "Having him there was a real endorsement for us and the work that we're doing. He's established [good] relations with our US president Mike Roberts," Barun told PR Week. McDonald's also promised to take an "industry-leading role" in working with Health and Human Services to determine the best ways to communicate nutrition information to consumers.[3]

In November 2004, PR Week reported that McDonald's head of U.S. communications, Michael Donahue, is "an adherent of using third-party endorsers." Donahue "had seen firsthand the value of using third-party endorsers" when McDonald's "was fighting a battle over the role its packaging played in waste-disposal problems in the late 1980s and early '90s." He used that approach in the company's "balanced lifestyle" PR campaign: "McDonald's aligned itself with Paul Newman as it introduced its new salads last year. Salads were rolled out in April with a New York press conference featuring Newman," reported PR Week. [3]

Additional luminaries were enlisted to pitch McDonald's new Fruit & Walnut Salad in 2005. The campaign's aim was to associate the salad with the celebrity cache of young, healthy, thin and hip superstars. McDonald's tied the announcement of the salad to its sponsorship of Destiny's Child world tour, a musical act with a huge teenage audience that McDonald's sought to tap and impress with their musical icons' ostensible endorsement of the salad. Tennis champion Venus Williams also jumped on the salad bandwagon.[4] Additionally, nutritionist Dr. Rovenia Brock was also enlisted to "help spread the message of balance creation nationwide to key influencers and McDonald's customers nationwide--particularly African American families." This marketing tie-in along with celebrity endorsements is part of McDonald's broader effort to include African Americans among its "key" marketing demographics.[5] Targeting this audience had already been an important business strategy, however, as in March 2005, McDonald's announced an offer to pay hip-hop artists in exchange for plugging Big Macs in their songs. In response, BusinessWeek commentator David Kiley wrote, "I happen to think McDonald's, for all the flack it gets about the childhood obesity problem, has a perfect right to sell Big Macs. But here's where the logic of this hip-hop plan jumps the rails for me. McDonald's just kicked off a campaign to advertise healthy eating and promoting physical activity to couch potato kids. Statistics are pretty clear that the obesity problem is especially bad among minorities in urban neighborhoods, arguably because there are more fast-food joints in poor neighborhoods than produce stands and good quality supermarkets."[6]

The chain also worked with Oprah Winfrey's personal trainer, Bob Greene. "The result was the Go Active! American Challenge with Bob Greene, a campaign that had Greene visiting 36 cities to talk to consumers about balancing exercise with healthy eating and living habits." PR Week reported, "The Greene campaign garnered more than 1 billion media impressions for McDonald's and helped defuse negative publicity from the film Super Size Me." [4]

Enlisting "moms"

In June 2007, Advertising Age reported that McDonald's is recruiting mothers as "quality correspondents" to observe and report on its operations, in an attempt to deflect criticism that its fast food makes children fat. In a message sent to "mother-oriented social networks and freebie product sites" McDonald's offered mothers a chance at "behind-the-scenes access to the farms [where] our fresh ingredients are grown." The winning mothers "are expected to participate in as many as three 'field trips' lasting two to three days, and receive payment for 'reasonable travel expenses.'" A McDonald's spokesperson said the company will then give mothers "avenues to be able to share their findings." [5] McDonald's opened its "moms' quality correspondence" PR campaign in early June 2007, meeting with the six mothers "at the company's global headquarters in Oak Brook, IL," reported PR Week. "Future interactions will include a visit to a beef supplier in August and a 'farm field' and produce supplier in September. ... The moms will also get the chance to work behind the counter of McDonald's in Oklahoma City." [6]

McDonald's PR executive Tara Lazarus Hayes said the mothers "will get to see first-hand how menu items are made, and ask our executives tough questions about nutrition," and also get a "sneak peek" at a "product due to launch next year." The campaign is geared to help McDonald's neutralize criticism about fast food and childhood obesity. "We're also hoping to dispel that McJob image," added Hayes. "We understand the mom-to-mom dialogue is important because they listen and influence each other." She explained that McDonald's hopes "the misperceptions they had and myths that are out there will be debunked by their [the mothers'] experience." The mothers will write about their experiences "and have them posted, unedited by McDonald's, online at McDonaldsmom.com." [7]

Nutrition Shell Game

In March 2004, prior to the release of the movie Super Size Me, McDonald's announced its intention to stop supersizing fries and sodas. The company claimed the change was part of an overall plan to revamp its menu.[7] Merely eliminating the "supersize" 7 oz. french fries while maintaining the "large" 6 oz. portion is still significantly larger than the original 2.4 oz. size fries McDonald's first served in the 1950s, however. Soda sizes would still range from 12 oz. to 32 oz.[8] Moreover, although the supersized soft drinks were removed as menu items, the products remain available as a "promotional option" for franchises. During a one-month promotion in Chicago, for example, McDonald's customers who bought a Big Mac and fries could get a free 42-oz beverage. For a Coke that means 410 calories and 28 teaspoons of sugar. Anna Rozenich, a spokesperson for McDonald's, insisted that this was not supersizing but was giving the franchises flexibility to promote larger sizes if competitors were offering larger sizes.[9]

In 2003, McDonald's salads, one of the company's touted "healthy" items, were among the worst offenders on a nutritional analysis of fast-food salads conducted by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). PCRM noted that all of the corporation's salad entrees contain chicken and concluded that all the salads "may very well clog up your arteries." The Bacon Ranch Salad with Crispy Chicken and Newman's Own Ranch Dressing was awarded "the dubious distinction of having the most fat of any salad rated. At 661 calories and 51 grams of fat, this salad is a diet disaster," with "more fat and calories and just as much cholesterol as a Big Mac."[10] Soon after the study was released, McDonald's revised its nutrition facts to list all of the salads without chicken as an option.

McDonald's also updated its Happy Meals to combat charges that it was turning young people into loyal Big Mac and McFlurry fans. "Happy Meal Choices" gives parents the options of replacing french fries with "Apple Dippers" and Coke with apple juice or milk. There is, however, no substitute for the hamburger, cheeseburger or Chicken McNuggets.[11] McDonald's, like other fast-food restaurants, must get food, any food, into the mouths of cash-carrying customers, so when one of the new items fails to make money, it is quickly removed. Such was the fate of the apparently less than popular Go Active! Adult Happy Meal, which was jettisoned soon after it had delivered the desired halo effect of positive feelings about the chain after its introduction in 2004.[12]

Encouraging Kids to Get Fit

In January 2005, McDonald's Chief Creative Officer Marlena Peleo-Lazar told a government panel concerned with food marketing to children that Ronald McDonald had morphed from "chief happiness officer" into an "ambassador for an active, balanced lifestyle" and was visiting elementary schools to tout exercise.[13] Ronald also got a makeover to look more active in June 2005, trading in his trademark yellow jumpsuit for sportier garb. McDonald's also introduced a new program called Active Achievers in fall 2005 to "deliver educational messages to students about nutrition, and balance between eating right and staying active."[14] They also announced a program called Passport to Play, which was distributed to 31,000 schools and seven million children. Psychologist Susan Linn, cofounder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, said McDonald's had no place in schools: "This is another marketing ploy. The notion that children need Ronald McDonald to get them to enjoy exercise is bogus. Given the opportunity, kids naturally like to be active."[15]

Menu Labeling

In 2006, McDonald's announced its intention to place nutrition information on the packaging of most of its menu items to, in part, combat the indictments of the voluntary system of menu labeling that relegated much of this information to brochures or company websites. McDonald's called the move "the latest transparency initiative information to help customers make informed choices."[16] Critics contend that seeing the calories on the wrapper of a cheeseburger you've already purchased is ineffective.

Ironically, only thirty years earlier, in 1975, however, McDonald's had fought off a federal proposal to require nutrition labeling on packaging, using much the same language that critics of the 2006 announcement were using to point out the limitations of the packaging approach. Despite expressing profound distaste for the idea of menu labeling in the 1970s, McDonald's reluctantly agreed to make nutrition information available through in-restaurant brochures. McDonald's also claimed that they had decided to give out nutrition information voluntarily, without mentioning that they had been forced to do it by the attorneys general in New York, Texas and California.[17]

In 1990, McDonald's (and the rest of the restaurant industry) managed to successfully exempt itself from the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act's updated "Nutrition Facts" law, which required that all packaged foods be labeled with specific nutrition data. Industry's sway over lawmakers was so great, however, that they managed to escape the FDA's labeling rules. McDonald's continues to combat putting nutrition information on menu boards. McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner claimed that doing so would be too complex and slow down service.[18]

"Pledging" to do Better

In 2006, McDonald's joined the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative launched by the Council of Better Business Bureaus, which asks participating companies to prepare a voluntary "pledge" to shift a portion of their advertising to kids under 12 to healthier choices.[19] McDonald's released its pledge in July 2007. The pledge promises to, among other things, direct 100% of national advertising to children under 12 to furthering "the goal of healthy dietary choices;" advertise either the 4 piece Chicken McNuggets Happy Meal or Hamburger Happy Meal as the healthier option; limit the use of licensed characters to the promotion of healthier choices; or place its food on any program directed at kids.[20] They created a supplement to the pledge in May 2008 that added more meals to the list of advertised foods that qualified as a "healthier option."[21] McDonald's defines "healthier choices" as those under 600 calories, a highly caloric meal for a child.

Additionally, in November 2008, McDonald's received an award for multicultural advertising from the Association of National Advertisers for a television commercial featuring children under 12 waving bags of McDonald's food.[22] The ad, clearly targeting children, offers insight into the boundaries and exceptions made in the pledge.

Countering "Super Size Me"

Early in 2004, Morgan Spurlock released a documentary film, Super Size Me, in which he ate three meals a day at McDonald's and gained 25 pounds. The title of the film is a play on the now abolished McDonald's "Super Size" menu option. [8] In May, when the documentary was slated for release in 35 theatres in the U.S., Walt Riker, McDonald's VP of corporate communications, told PR Week that the company was "responding aggressively because the film is a gross misrepresentation of what McDonald's is all about". According to PR Week McDonald's has been promoting its global nutritionist Cathy Kapica with the company pleased to report that she has been quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times, the Los Angeles Times and will appear on CNN, CNBC and in an Associated Press story. The trade magazine also reported McDonald's had released both a video news release and an audio news release and that "an aggressive independent third-party response" would be issued by the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). ACSH's Ruth Kava had a column published on Tech Central Station.

In response to Spurlock's film Soso Whaley, an adjunct fellow with the the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) has launched her own 30-day McDonald's only diet. "This anti-corporate, anti-fast food take on the 'evil' McDonald's is nothing more than simple junk science and should be relegated to the comedy section at Blockbuster once it is distributed. To be honest, I've had it with all the doom and gloom, alarmist, anti-everything attitude of certain individuals and organizations who want to control my life, your life, everyone's life with little regard for individual tastes, freedom of choice and personal responsibility," she wrote in her diary:

My real purpose is not to prove something, rather, I see this as a unique opportunity to explore food and weight issues and separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to what is reported about our health and well being in the media and other sources. [9]

While Waley claimed her project was not not out to prove something, the media head line for from CEI the day before her 30-day project indicated was:

Filmmaker to Challenge Fast Food Perceptions: Will Eat at McDonald's for 30 Days and Lose Weight.

The criticisms of Spurlock by others allowed McDonald's to appear disinterested in responding to the issues raised in the film. "We see no reason to respond to Morgan Spurlock when so many other experts have already spoken out on the film's distortions and irresponsibility, including those consumers who voluntarily are conducting their own independent 30-day McDonald's diet to disprove his over-the-top behavior," Riker said in a media release. [10] But McDonald's U.S. head of communications Michael Donahue and Patti Temple Rocks, who does PR for McDonald's at the Golin Harris PR firm "credit McDonald's proactive efforts around the balanced lifestyle theme" - in particular, the Go Active! campaign - "with blunting the movie's impact on sales. 'It's not a coincidence that the movie has had virtually zero financial impact,'" Rocks told PR Week. [11] McDonald's in Australia filmed three commercials which disputed some of the claims in the film. Super Size Me grossed the highest opening weekend takings for a documentary in Australian history. Spurlock claims he consumed 13.5 kilograms of sugar and 5.5 kilograms of fat, while his weight increased by 11.25 kilograms. [12] McDonald's Australia was the first McDonald's in the world to use advertising to publicly attack the movie. The strategy had been to ignore it, but research from customers indicated that McDonald's silence might be taken as an admission of guilt. [13]

SAFE from real labor commitments

After its protests "forced Taco Bell to pay tomato pickers a penny more per pound," the Florida-based labor rights group Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) started "pressuring McDonald's for a similar agreement." Instead, McDonald's joined the "Socially Accountable Farm Employer (SAFE) voluntary certification program." Launched in November 2005, SAFE is run by board members of the industry group Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association and an association grantee, the Redlands Christian Migrant Association (a childcare provider with no experience in labor issues). SAFE is represented by CBR Public Relations, one of McDonald's PR firms, which specializes in "activist response management." Intertek, a firm that "already performs safety audits for McDonald's," will evaluate SAFE members' compliance. SAFE "does not include any input from workers," "does little to address low wages," and "does not guarantee workers overtime pay or the right to organize." A CIW organizer said McDonald's joined SAFE "to protect their public image in place of making a change in our lives." [23], [24]

McDonald's and "McJobs"

"There's good reason such service-sector positions are called 'McJobs'," wrote Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser. His Los Angeles Times piece described Proposition 72, "an initiative that would require large and medium-sized business owners to give health benefits to their workers," and which California voters will consider on November 2, 2004. "The leading corporate sponsor of the effort to block its passage," wrote Schlosser, "is McDonald's. ... The fast-food industry is the nation's largest employer of minimum-wage labor. ... Led by McDonald's, the industry has pioneered a workforce that earns low wages, gets little training, receives few benefits and has one of the highest turnover rates of any trade." Other opponents of Proposition 72 include Burger King, Wendy's, Jack in the Box, Walgreen, Best Buy, Target, Sears, YUM! Brands (owner of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC), the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Restaurant Association.

California's state legislature had already passed a bill in 2003, signed into law by then-Governor Gray Davis, that required larger businesses to offer health care benefits. But fast-food companies, big box retail chains and their allies spent "millions of dollars to rescind the law through the initiative process," wrote Schlosser. In their campaign to defeat the initiative, the same groups ran television ads relying on "scare tactics, distortions and ... fundamental misrepresentation[s] of Proposition 72." [25] Proposition 72 failed.

PR Week reported that McDonald's head of U.S. communications, Michael Donahue, included "good news" about the restaurant chain's impact on local economies as part of a new, "proactive" corporate PR campaign. In 2002, Donahue "held a summit of the 125 PR firms that work with McDonald's and its various owner-operators across the country, encouraging them to tell McDonald's story locally," reported PR Week. Donahue encouraged local owners and PR firms to showcase "studies in various markets that showed the economic impact" of McDonald's - studies funded by the company itself. "Local owner groups can use such studies to show their contribution to the local community," while stressing that the company prioritizes social responsibility, reported PR Week. PR Week [26] In June 2007, Time magazine reported that McDonald's was "lobbying dictionary publishers to change the meaning of the word McJob -- or remove it altogether -- on the grounds that it denigrates the company's employees." McJob is commonly used to refer to "an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects," according to the Oxford English Dictionary. McDonald's wants to redefine it as "a job that is stimulating, rewarding ... and offers skills that last a lifetime." [27]

Polluting MTV

"Magazine Advertising Age reported that McDonald's has hired marketing firm Maven Strategies to help get the sandwich name checked into upcoming songs. Maven Strategies performed well last year, after landing the Seagram’s Gin into five rap songs, from such acts as Kanye West, Twista, Franchise Boys and Petey Pablo," Nolan Strong wrote in an article.[14]

Ad boycott against Air America Radio

McDonald's refused to advertise on the progressive Air America Radio. In October 2006, around 90 companies, including McDonald's, told ABC Radio Networks that they did not want their ads to play on radio stations that carried Air America Radio. [28], [29], [30]

McLibel or the ugly truth?

The McLibel Trial is the infamous British court case between McDonald's and a postman and a gardener from London (Helen Steel and Dave Morris). It ran for two and a half years and became the longest ever English trial. The Judge delivered his verdict in June 1997. The verdict was devastating for McDonald's. The judge ruled that they 'exploit children' with their advertising, produce 'misleading' advertising, are 'culpably responsible' for cruelty to animals, are 'antipathetic' to unionisation and pay their workers low wages. But Helen and Dave failed to prove all the points and so the Judge ruled that they HAD libelled McDonald's and should pay �40,000 damages. They refused and McDonald's knew better than to pursue it. In March 1999 the Court of Appeal made further rulings against McDonald's in relation to heart disease and employment.

As a result of the court case, the [31] mushroomed, the press coverage increased exponentially, the McSpotlight website was born and a 60-minute documentary was produced. The legal controversy continues. The McLibel 2 have taken the British Government to the European Court of Human Rights to defend the public's right to criticise multinationals, claiming UK libel laws are oppressive and unfair. [15] In early May 2004 the European Court of Human Rights has declared as admissible Steel and Morris's claim that the McLibel trial breached their Article 6 right to a fair trial and Article 10 right to freedom of expression.

Animal welfare issues

Business Ethics magazine criticizes animal cruelty

In 1999, McDonald’s was nominated by Business Ethics Magazine for its' prestigious Business Ethics Award. However, the magazine decided not to grant them the award due to animal welfare issues and concerns. According to an open letter from the judges, published in the November/December 1999 issue:

"We must express concern about slaughterhouse cruelty by McDonald’s suppliers. ...Federal standards require that 100 percent of cows be fully stunned before they are skinned, but (according to) a McDonald’s training video ...it’s acceptable if five cows in every 100 are conscious while skinned and dismembered. It’s inhumane to allow animals to suffer in this manner. And the real error rate may be far more than 5 percent ...In the case of chickens, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommendations say they should have at least 2 square feet of space, yet McDonald’s suppliers allow only .55 square feet—not enough space for a chicken to spread one wing. In addition, birds are bred to grow so large, their legs can’t bear the weight, and they suffer painful leg deformities. Surely it’s not asking too much to change policies, so that these animals are granted a modicum of comfort."[32]

Although McDonald’s referred to itself as an "industry leader in animal welfare", the editors were aware of McLibel. In 1997, when Chief Justice Roger Bell of the British High Court in London returned his lengthy findings, he cited McDonald's as "culpably responsible" for animal cruelty. An Appeals Court judge agreed:

"Keeping large numbers of chickens in close confinement inevitably leads to disease ...The high density is intentional and unnecessary. ...In my judgement it’s cruel." [33]

McDonald’s is largest purchaser of beef and the second largest purchaser of poultry in the United States. [34]

McCruelty to go campaign

For two years, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) attempted to negotiate with McDonald's. During this time, McDonald's continued to insist in counter campaigning that "industry practice" only seemed cruel to the "inexperienced observer" and was actually "for the animals own good". Furthermore, their critics "simply did not understand animal welfare". Dr. Temple Grandin has designed the systems in meat processing plants for nearly half the cattle in North America and is McDonald's livestock handling consultant. When she was asked for her input, she indicated that with almost no effort, the corporation could require suppliers to hire two stunners. This simple measure would markedly decrease the number of animals who are skinned and dismembered alive. The company chose not to do so. She also noted that the current methods of catching chickens for slaughter caused a high incidence of trauma (broken wings and legs). Dr. Grandin pointed out British incentives which were in place to reduce trauma incidents. McDonald's also ignored this advice, in spite of lip service to the Associated Press that: "if Dr. Grandin sees a problem, we correct it."

Another consultant informed McDonald's that there were reliable sources of of humanely raised cows and pigs if the restaurant chain would commit to purchasing them. Their response was that they were "already the leader in animal welfare issues". After two years of frustrating discussions, PETA launched its international McCruelty to go campaign. [35], [36] Tyson Foods is a major supplier of restaurant chains, including McDonalds [37] See also Tyson Foods, section 2 & War on Animals, section 2 on animals raised & hunted for food.

McDonald's overseas

In a November 2007 commentary, Demos think tank fellow Benjamin Barber claimed that McDonald's was one of several "classically 'American' brands" that, due to increasingly negative perceptions of the United States around the world, was "running away from Brand USA to preserve their image abroad." (Other brands he mentioned were Coca Cola, Nike and General Motors.) In France, McDonald's "bought the rights to Asterix. These days, it's this famous Gallic comic book icon, and not Ronald McDonald, who is selling Big Macs in Paris." [38]

Political contributions

McDonald's gave $123,000 to federal candidates in the 05/06 election cycle through its political action committee (PAC) - 10% to Democrats, 90% to Republicans. [39]

Lobbying

The company spent $372,920 for lobbying in 2006. $40,000 was to an outside lobbying firm with the remainder being spent on in-house lobbyists.[40]

Personnel

Key executives and 2006 pay: [41]          Options
exercised
James A. Skinner, Chief Executive Officer    $10,010,000    $2,920,000
Ralph Alvarez, Chief Operating Officer    $4,370,000    $1,380,000
Matthew H. Paull, Chief Financial Officer    $3,600,000    $1,180,000
Timothy J. Fenton, President of Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa    $2,220,000    $1,380,000
Denis Hennequin, President of Europe Operations    $3,060,000    N/A
Bob Langert, Senior Director for Corporate Social Responsibility    N/A    N/A

Selected members of the Board of Directors: [42]

Contact details

2111 McDonald's Drive
Oak Brook, IL 60523
Phone: (630) 623-3000
Fax: (630) 623-5004
Web: http://www.mcdonalds.com

Articles and sources

Related SourceWatch articles

References

  1. ↑ Abigail Goldman, "Eye-opener with a pitch: TV news program tries product placement as revenue source," Las Vegas Sun (Nevada), July 21, 2008.
  2. ↑ Stephanie Clifford, "A Product's Place Is on the Set," New York Times, July 22, 2008.
  3. ↑ Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back, (Nation Books, 2006), pg 71
  4. ↑ Michele Simon,Appetite for Profit pg 76
  5. ↑ McDonald's "McDonald’s® Partners with Nutritionist, Author and Motivational Speaker, Dr. Ro to Promote ‘It’s What I Eat and What I Do™…I’m lovin’ it™’ Public Awareness Campaign" May 9, 2005
  6. ↑ David Kiley, "McDonald's Turning Brand Placement Into Junk" BusinessWeek, March 29, 2005
  7. ↑ Associated Press "McSupersizes to be phased out" March 3, 2004
  8. ↑ Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit pg 69
  9. ↑ Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit, pg 69
  10. ↑ Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine "The New “Salads”: The Latest in Fast Fraud" Accessed October 2008
  11. ↑ Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit pg 72
  12. ↑ Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit pg 84
  13. ↑ Caroline E. Mayer, "McDonald's Makes Ronald a Health Ambassador" Washington Post January 28, 2005
  14. ↑ Quoted in Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit pg 35
  15. ↑ Susan Linn in email to Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit pg 35
  16. ↑ McDonald's Press Release "McDonald's Announces Industry Leading Customer Initiative" October 25, 2005.
  17. ↑ Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit, pg 202-203
  18. ↑ Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit, pg 204
  19. ↑ Council of Better Business Bureaus "About the Initiative" Accessed November 2008
  20. ↑ Council of Better Business Bureaus Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative "McDonald's USA Support"
  21. ↑ Council of Better Business Bureaus Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative "McDonald's Supplemental Food Pledge"
  22. ↑ Laurel Wentz "McDonald's Snags Multicultural Award at ANA Conference"Association of National Advertisers" November 18, 2008
  23. ↑ Kari Lydersen vs. the Tomato Pickers, The New Standard, Alternet.org, December 2005
  24. ↑ McDonalds Next Boycott, Opinion, Daily Texan on-line, November 2005
  25. ↑ Eric Shlosser Super-Sized Deception From Fast-Food Giants, Los Angeles Times, October 2004
  26. ↑ Organic Consumers Associations Finally, McDonald's Story Can be Told, PR Watch: The Weekly Spin, December 2004
  27. ↑ Christopher Thompson Can McDonald's Alter the Dictionary?, Business & Technology, June 2007
  28. ↑ Marc Fisher, "Air America, in the Throes of Victory?", The Washington Post, December 10, 2006.
  29. ↑ "Air America on Ad Blacklist?", FAIR, October 31, 2006.
  30. ↑ "Air America Blackout", FAIR.org/ABC memo, October 25, 2006.
  31. ↑ McSpotlight Anti-McDonald's campaign, accessed March 2009
  32. ↑ cited in John Robbins, Old McDonald Had a Factory: Did Somebody Say McLibel?, Celsias.com (Blog), October 2007
  33. ↑ cited in John Robbins, Old McDonald Had a Factory: Did Somebody Say McLibel?, Celsias.com (Blog), October 2007
  34. ↑ cited in John Robbins, Old McDonald Had a Factory: Did Somebody Say McLibel?, Celsias.com (Blog), October 2007
  35. ↑ McCruelty.com I'm Hatin It, PETA.org, accessed March 2009
  36. ↑ Lynn Truong The Cost of Meat—The Market Demand Argument: PETA vs. McDonald's, Wisebread (blog), May 2007
  37. ↑ Steve Hannaford Oligopoly profile: Tyson Foods, Oligopoly Watch, updated September 2007
  38. ↑ Benjamin Barber, "'Brand America' has gone toxic," NPR Marketplace, November 5, 2007.
  39. ↑ 2006 PAC Summary Data, Open Secrets, accessed October 2007.
  40. ↑ McDonald's lobbying expenses, Open Secrets, accessed October 2007.
  41. ↑ McDonald's Key Executives, Yahoo Finance, accessed October 2007.
  42. ↑ Board of Directors, McDonald's, accessed October 2007.

External articles

See also McDonald's:External articles

Retrieved from "http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=McDonald%27s"
Personal tools

Be a SourceWatcher!

Enter your e-mail address to get the Center for Media and Democracy's free weekly e-newsletter.