Filed under: Marketing and advertising, McDonald’s (MCD)

This is pretty appalling: Not content with exposing kids to junk food on TV and on every street corner, McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) has apparently decided that it needs to reach out to kids on their report card envelopes.

An Orlando parent was upset when her 9-year-old daughter brought home her report card. But it wasn’t Ds and “acts obnoxious in class” comments that annoyed this mom: the envelope the child brought home displayed a nice advertisement for McDonald’s — the chain whose food can have such a bad impact on health that it inspired a hit documentary.

The Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood is, of course, not too happy about all this, and issued a press release demanding that the ads be pulled.

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As a practical matter, these ads aren’t really a huge deal. For superior or for worse, kids are exposed to fast food advertising pretty much from the cradle to the grave. But does the school really need cash so badly that it would participate in a campaign to market unhealthy food to children?

Another problem I’ve with it: The ad offered kids a free Happy Meal for their good work. Shouldn’t kids be taught to work for knowledge and pride, not crappy food and imported toys?

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This entry was posted on Saturday, December 15th, 2007 at 2:27 am and is filed under Marketing and Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.