McDonald's defends advertising to children

McDonald's Corp. CEO Jim Skinner on Thursday defended the company's right to advertise to children, saying "this is about choice" and that parents are responsible for deciding what to feed their kids.

At its annual shareholders meeting in Oak Brook, Skinner said that while shareholders have the right to express concerns, McDonald's should also have the right to advertise its menu offerings.

On Wednesday, watchdog group Corporate Accountability International placed ads in U.S. newpapers, including the Chicago Sun-Times, asking the company to stop marketing to children and retire Ronald McDonald as its mascot.

Skinner said that after the ads were run, he received overwhelming support from "customers and people who said they are not our customers, pleading for their right to choose."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chibrkbus-mcdonalds-defends-advertising-to-children-20110519,0,1259518.story

Nobody is arguing for a ban on feeding children McDonald's food.

What a putz.

and at the minimum bad parenting.

I believe the evidence is stronger that advertising targeting children under the age of 5 is abusive.

The idea of children doesn't even come into it.

Even if there's no need or desireability for something, if someone can make a buck off it, the right to make that dollar means more than anything in our society. About the only thing you can't do is mug somebody for that dollar, but up to the point of physical assault, just about anything else goes.

If you're more concerned about people's health than you are about McDonald's making that dollar, you are hooted down as being against "capitalism" or in favor of some other "unAmerican" activity, like wanting to swat a Big Mac out of children's hands. The damage done to our society by the proliferation of the empty calories of McDonald's "food" never enters into the conversation, trumped by the almighty dollar that McDonald's can make.

and toys now. It becomes video games and other social networking events.

Children don't have to be told "no" just once. It's an ongoing imposition that involves a lot of energy.

And it isn't just saying no to the toy at McDonalds. It's preventing one's child from engaging in the social interactions the other kids will have that center around corporate sponsored crap.

It's still true that advertising is much more than offering people a choice, and it's still true that libertarians and free-market monkeys, even on this site, will stick up for McDonald's and Wal-Mart.