No more McDonald's ads on report card envelopes

by Bev Sklar (Subscribe to Bev Sklar's posts)
Jan 18th 2008 7:30AM

Categories: Healthy Kids, Nutrition & Supplements

Brian wrote a post last month on the controversial McDonald's advertising printed on envelopes holding the report cards of elementary school kids in Seminole County, Florida. Good news! McDonald's has responded to public pressure and officially ended its Happy Meal reward advertising on the report card envelopes. They're footing the bill to immediately reprint the envelopes -- with no trademarks. Talk about a branding strategy gone bad.

Turns out one parent, Susan Pagan, started the ripple which crested and crashed a tidal wave of pressure on McDonald's to remove the predatory advertising. Pagan complained that her daughter worked hard for her grades and then felt entitled to the advertised promise of a Happy Meal -- only to be disappointed as the Pagans do not eat at fast food chains. Pagan boldly pointed out McDonald's was exploiting her daughter's good grades. Unbelievably, 2,000 more parents complained, and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) campaigned McDonald's to immediately stop the advertising, citing this marketing strategy was in clear violation of McDonald's pledge to stop advertising in elementary schools.

Good for Susan Pagan for speaking up, and for CCFC and other parents for supporting her fight against a behemoth corporation peddling 710 calorie Happy Meal prizes loaded with 28 grams of fat and 35 grams of sugar to young, impressionable kids. Shame on McDonald's -- and what was the Seminole County School Board thinking? Many parents, teachers and organizations (e.g., Alliance for a Healthier Generation) are working diligently to get the vending and a la carte junk foods and sugary beverages out of schools, and this school board grants approval to link academic performance with a free Happy Meal? How about a free pedometer, a free dance night, a free jump rope or free time to cultivate a school vegetable garden instead?

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Comments (8)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

anon 2-25-2008 @ 11:53PM

you people need lives. what is wrong with a child being rewarded for doing a good job? susan pagan should be shot!

Emma Leigh 2-26-2008 @ 10:28AM

McDonald's isn't the only mega-corporation that is doing things like this.

My daughter has a reading goal every month of 20 books. She is in first grade. If she meets the goal she gets a certificate and a coupon good for a Pizza Hut personal pan pizza. I bet it has more calories and fat than a Happy Meal. We have 4 of these coupons hanging on the bulletin board. One month they sent a Bowling coupon home - that one we used. No one at my house like the greasy mess PH calls pizza.

Every nine weeks there is a ceremony for the honor roll. Guess who hosts the little reception with brownies and punch? Chik-fil-a.

Everyday we hear stories about how fat the population of the US is getting. It is starting at a very young age and is sponsored by our government run schools. Go visit your local public elementary school. Ask who their "educational partners" are. I'm betting you will find a list of 5 or more fast food joints within 2 miles of the school.

sho 2-27-2008 @ 12:08PM

Wow so if kids have one burger every few months it equals heart attack? I think Pagan was never hugged as a child

Emma Leigh 2-27-2008 @ 1:06PM

If it were only one cheeseburger every few months, that probably wouldn't be a problem.

Let me share some other promotions that go on at my daughter's school.

Yesterday she came home wearing a sticker exclaiming "LES night at the Baker's Crust!" Last month it was held at a Pizza buffet and the month before that at the Sub shop and the month before that at the Pizza place again. These "school nights" start in Oct and run all year long - there are one or 2 per month. (9 times per year)

Each grading period some coupon for "free child's meal with parent purchase" for good grades. (4 times per year)

The pizza coupon comes home with the reading goals starting in October (9 times a year)

Receptions for Honor Roll and Young Pride involve cookies and/or brownies, punch and a coupon (4 times per year)

If you have a good student at my daughter's school you are bombarded with free junk food 26 times in a school year. That's a little more than a cheeseburger every couple of months.

Bev Sklar 2-29-2008 @ 1:07AM

Emma Leigh,

Thanks for taking the time to break down the approximate number of times junk food is tied with academics within your daughter's educational sphere. Twenty-six times -- amazing and awful.

I've started tossing out the free pizza coupons for reading awards. I am encouraged that our public schools are strictly adhering to 'healthy snacks/water only' at school (no fruit juice) and school parties are junk-free. I brought a fruit salad to my son's Valentine's Day school party. Our park district preschool has also cancelled snack time during their 2 1/4 hour preschool program -- I'm grateful for that policy change. I never could figure out why my kids should bring a snack to preschool when they just ate breakfast and would eat lunch shortly after being picked up.

Some public schools are responding with better policies, however most cafeterias need a major nutritional overhaul. Studies have shown school nutrition programs do not lose money when they serve healthier foods.

Americans can't deny the numbers -- it was recently reported over 70 million are obese in this country. Parents need to teach kids healthy eating habits at a young age, as well as revamp their own meals at home.

Bev Sklar

Judy 2-29-2008 @ 12:00PM

Part of my decision to homeschool is because of the nutritional quality of school lunches and because of the promotions.

And I know some will say "just pack a lunch." Well, tried that with my daughter (who lives with her dad now and attends public school). She brought leftovers from our meals, and the kids around her picked on her for the way the food smelled, because of the spices we used. Eventually, she wanted to just buy her lunch because she got tired of the other kids' comments.

Her school lunches would sometimes have things like "Cheetos" or other brand-name junk food snacks, as part of promotions. I don't believe that's the place of the public schools.

Our local library gave out free food coupons for Applebee's, Chick-Fil-A and something else with the summer reading program. We'd never been to CFA before, so I threw that one away, and we go to Applebee's about once a year, so I think that one got lost too.

If it was just a once-in-a-while thing, I wouldn't mind so much, but when you are getting it from the schools, the library, and just about everywhere else, you end up constantly telling your kids NO. And what's the good in that?

Vishaal 1-18-2008 @ 12:28PM

Sheesh, isn't this just outrageously sick? I can't believe corporations stoop so low as to advertise to children like this. Shame.

Bill 2-26-2008 @ 10:56AM

This is a prime example of a woman, Susan Pagan looking for her 15 minutes of fame.

If people do not want their children to eat food from McDonalds, then don't take them there.

Today, the word corporations stirs emotion in those who do not understand economy.

Unfortunately, this is another attack against our culture by purists who want to dictate health to the rest of us.

Well, it seems as if the lady in question, Susan Pagan, had a few too many cheeseburgers herself.