Transnational industry. McDonald's
Brazilian health ministry burgered
Brazilian health minister Alexandre Padilha (left) and CEO Marcelo Rabach
launch McDonald's- backed official health messages that promote burgers
Our news team reports: Ronald McDonald, sometimes known as 'The deep-fried Joe Camel', is not about to be retired in Brazil. The photograph above shows a promotion launched last month for which the Brazilian health ministry and McDonald's are jointly responsible. Health Minister Alexandre Padilha (left) and McDonald's Brazil CEO Marcelo Rabach (right) are holding up the poster also shown above. This includes various tips designed to encourage children towards 'health and balance', by running, dancing, playing football, sleeping well, staying out of the sun, eating vagetables and fruits, and… in the centre at the bottom of the poster, an advertisement for McDonald's. On the other side is information not originated by the health ministry. This is a list of the nutrients contained in many McDonald's products, with an extra twist. These are compared with other 'day to day' foods, such as traditional snacks, pizza, and the Brazilian national weekend dish feijoada. McDonald's in Brazil will now be using the poster as table-mats in their Brazilian outlets, indicating that burgers are now endorsed as healthy by the Brazilian government.
On 30 May Association members Cesar Victora and Carlos Monteiro wrote an open letter to Alexandre Padilha expressing concern about the promotion. 'In our view, this involvement with the McDonald's campaign does not fit with the progressive past records of the Ministry of Health in promoting the food security of the Brazilian population, nor with the present correct priority given to the promotion of healthy diets and the prevention of chronic diseases' says Carlos Monteiro.
In line with other transnationals, McDonald's policy is annual 'double-digit' growth in China, Russia, Brazil and other countries with a (literally) expanding middle-class. McDonald's currently has well over 30,000 outlets in over 120 countries and territories, and employs 1.5 million people worldwide. In the US one in every eight people have at some time in their lives worked at McDonald's. It is the world's largest purchaser of beef and pork. The cows and chickens that become substrate for 'happy meals' are fed soy meal, of which Brazil is now the world's largest exporter. The burgering of the Brazilian Minister of Health is another sign that in 'market economies' executive decisions are taken less by governments and more by transnational industry.
Box 1
The open letter to McDonald's in the US
Here is the letter from what is now over 1,500 US physicians, scientists and public health professionals, addressed to McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner. Association members who want to support the initiative should contact Corporate Accountability International at www.lettertomcdonalds.org/
As health professionals engaged directly in the largest preventable health crisis facing this country, we ask that you stop marketing junk food to children.
The rates of sick children are staggering. Ballooning health care costs and an overburdened health care system make treatment more difficult than ever. And we know that reducing junk food marketing can significantly improve the health of kids.
Our community is devoted to caring for sick children and preventing illness through public education. But our efforts cannot compete with the hundreds of millions of dollars you spend each year directly marketing to kids.
Today, our private practices, pediatric clinics, and emergency rooms are filled with children suffering from conditions related to the food they eat. In the decades to come, one in three children will develop type 2 diabetes as a result of diets high in McDonald's-style junk food, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This generation may be the first in U.S. history to live shorter lives than their parents.
The rise of health conditions like diabetes and heart disease mirrors the growth of your business – growth driven in large part by children's marketing. Although the American Academy of Pediatrics deems such marketing "inherently deceptive to children under 8," you continue to use it as a vehicle to grow your enterprise.
As one marketing expert puts it, "Ronald captures kids' attention better than anyone else can." You use Ronald McDonald and other promotions to appeal to kids in environments that informed parents and health professionals can't constantly monitor – from schools to libraries to the internet. Today, your icon is as recognized as Santa Claus, and the McDonald's model of marketing is used by a range of abusive industries.
McDonald's and industry front groups have refused to address the dangerous toll that fast food and predatory marketing is taking on our kids. While acknowledging that fast food is unhealthy, you pin responsibility for the epidemic of diet related disease on a breakdown in parental responsibility.
As health professionals, we know that parents exercising responsibility for their children's diets and physical activity is vital. We also know – and the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity agrees – that no authoritative data indicate a breakdown in parental responsibility.
Obesity and disease levels among kids are rising even though parents continue to parent and, as researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health conclude, kids continue to exercise at rates similar to those of two decades ago. So what has changed?
What has changed is the food children eat and the amount of marketing they are bombarded with. Even when parents resist the "nag effect" cultivated by McDonald's to access the $40 – 50 billion in annual purchases that children under 12 control, advertising creates brand loyalties that persist into adulthood.
Advertising is at the heart of McDonald's business model, with annual expenditures reaching $2 billion. Your marketing practices set the standard for competitors across industries.
We know the contributors to today's 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.
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. Our children and health care system will benefit from your leadership on this issue.
