Springtime is yard sale season, but don’t put your Ronald McDonald promotional products up for sale just yet – they could soon become collector’s items, as the McDonald’s corporation is feeling the pressure from childhood obesity activist groups to retire its fast-food-loving mascot.
A group of pediatricians, physicians, parents, and other concerned citizens – many of whom helped put Joe Camel back in his stable in the 1990s – have asked McDonald’s to stop marketing its food to children by eliminating the 43-year-old Ronald from its campaigns, including television commercials, digital and print advertisements, and promotional products. The group, which calls itself Corporate Accountability International, argues in an open letter to McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner that “contributors to today’s health epidemic are manifold and a broad societal response is required. But marketing can no longer be ignored as a significant part of this massive problem.”