Group That Took Down Joe Camel Now Has Ronald McDonald In Their Crosshairs
I’ve been saying for a while now that “fat is the new smoking.” Which is to say that the nanny statists and prohibitionists, having established with the push for smoking bans that the government has the authority to micromanage our lives for the sake of our health, are moving on from smoking to unhealthy eating habits.
This is becoming more and more clear as the same group that took down Joe Camel, which they say was a marketing ploy intended to sell cigarettes to kid, is now going after Ronald McDonald.
A group called Corporate Accountability International plans to ask Ronald to retire at the company’s annual meeting on Thursday. They say Ronald encourages kids to eat junk food, contributing to a rise in childhood obesity and related diseases such as diabetes.
The group, which campaigned against the Joe Camel cigarette mascot in the ‘90s and complained about Ronald as a role model at McDonald’s annual meeting last year, has stepped up its campaign. The group has taken out full-page ads Wednesday in the Chicago Sun-Times, New York Metro and four other papers to call for his head. The ads, signed by more than 550 health groups and professionals, carry the headline, “Doctors’ Orders: Stop Marketing Junk Food To Kids.”
What follows is an open letter to McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner, that says in part, “We ask that you heed our concern and retire your marketing promotions for food high in salt, fat, sugar, and calories to children, whatever form they take — from Ronald McDonald to toy giveaways.”
McDonald‘s defended Ronald against the group’s attack at last year’s annual meeting and is adamant that it has never considered retiring or even downplaying their smiling mascot.
So what’s the next step? A Surgeon General’s warning on your cheeseburger? Bans on fast food restaurants within so many feet of schools and other public buildings? Class action lawsuits against the fast food industry to recoup the health costs of unhealthy eating and line the pockets of trial lawyers? Laws that require fast food companies to sponsor ads telling people not to eat fast food?
The tobacco prohibitionists have honed their schtick with a sharp edge, and everyone who held the door open for them on the smoking bans is responsible at least in part for this new jihad against fast food.
Opponents of the smoking bans such as myself warned for years that when the nanny statists were done with cigarettes and chew they’d move on to cheeseburgers and french fries. That day has arrived. These people are tyrants, and they won’t be satisfied until you’re living your life according to their plan for you.
Tags: nanny statism, ronald mcdonald
