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ETHICS
McDonald’s should remove Ronald the mascot. All kid-focused marketing as these toys, for example, are used to lure children to its Happy Meals, representing nearly $3 billion of McDonald’s annual sales alone. McDonald’s approach to developing brand loyalty in younger kids may be understood to be unfair and, thus, deceptive marketing. In short, marketing to children is a predatory practice that further instills lousy eating habits, thus putting children at higher risks of developing diet-related diseases like obesity. Despite parents bearing much of the responsibility of the eating habits of the child, McDonald’s, for instance, makes it nearly impossible for them to fulfill their duties by giving away toys and using Ronald, the fictional character, to market to kids.
Also, children are particularly susceptible to marketing, especially at ages eight and younger. Therefore, they cannot differentiate between intentional and unintentional marketing. For example, an average child sees nearly 11,000 advertisements annually on Tv, with notably more than 90 percent of those commercials advertising unhealthy foods and McDonald’s products. Additionally, McDonald’s alone is estimated to spend over $1 billion annually directly on advertising, with the company being the largest distributor of toys in the world.[1] Tv commercials and collectible toys lure the much.
Sensitive children, with children averagely watching more tv than the time they spend at school.
Therefore, McDonald’s should remove Ronald and all kid-focused marketing despite Ronald McDonald the mascot, for example, being the company’s brand ambassador. Ronald is recognized by more than ninety-eight percent of consumers in the United States, with most children even recognizing Mcdonald’s before they can begin to speak. [2]Honestly, the strategic association with Ronald McDonald, the clown has been aimed at enticing children. And therefore having McDonalds work against the parents. McDonald’s advertisement strategies greatly influence children, and despite this, McDonald’s continues to reap profits from targeting children. [3]Recent surveys have suggested that McDonald’s Happy Meals’ toys greatly influence children into ordering happy meals, which in the long run, lead to future health problems like obesity and maybe, premature death.
Equally Important, McDonald’s violates several consumer protection laws by vigorously marketing to the more vulnerable children and thus exploiting this vulnerability. What is seen as a simple toy, a simple mascot, is a well-articulated marketing strategy designed to control the developmental maturity of children, who, as mentioned earlier, cannot differentiate between intentional and unintentional marketing. Furthermore, the use of mascots and toys undermines parental authority and is thus, very unfair to parents. [4]In conclusion, the use of marketing focused on kids is unfair to both the children and parents, unhealthy: as children eat unbalanced Happy Meals, which consequently promotes obesity.
No. McDonalds should not be blamed for obesity in general. However, obesity from McDonald’s meals is primarily a significant problem. Additionally, McDonald’s operates more than 40,000 restaurants in more than 110 countries on six continents. Daily, McDonald’s feeds more than 70 million people worldwide.[5]More than thirty percent of the worldwide population visit fast-food restaurants every day, with masses willing to compromise and have fast foods instead of healthy ones cooked at home. Notably, recently conducted surveys by Wisconsin university suggest that fast foods may have addictive qualities.[6]Diet high in fat, for example, is said to alter the biochemistry of the brain, in the same vein as a drug such as morphine would affect the body.
Therefore, McDonald’s cannot be solely blamed for obesity in general but is put on the scope because it is the largest fast-food globally and, therefore, a somewhat role model to its peers like Burger King and Wendy’s. Accordingly, reforming it would mean improving the whole fast food industry. The case of Pelman v McDonald’s raised the very vital question of who is to be held accountable for the consequences of obesity.[7] The facts of the case were on behalf of children who had consumed products. From McDonald’s and subsequently became obese and overweight. Although recently dismissed, the case provides a significant scope at consumers attempting to hold the food industry accountable for wrongful manipulation of Americans’ food choices.
Therefore, this paper supports that McDonald’s should not be blamed for obesity in general because it is a matter of choice by consumers to eat there. Equally important, it is not the law’s place to protect and shield consumers from their excess. Studies show that the excess intake of energy brings about obesity, and with that, the FDA puts much emphasis on encouraging consumers to take sensible portions. [8]Therefore, McDonald’s cannot be solely blamed for obesity because consumers have to control the amount they eat. Parents, additionally, have a great responsibility in ensuring that their children eat healthy diets. Overall, eating habits, particularly the amount of food consumed extensively, cause obesity[9]. Consumers should, therefore, be held liable when they eat too much and consequently fail to exercise enough to reduce energy intake.
Much of the nation’s obesity pandemic narrows down to personal responsibility. If people ate less and consequently exercised even more, the country, on the whole, would be so much healthier. The majority of people believe that they are solely responsible for their weight issues. Nevertheless, the food industry also continues to maintain the menacing obesity problem, for example, luring the younger generation to foods that contain more than half of the recommended daily intake of salt. Lack of manual labor in the workforce plays a part in the obesity pandemic. Despite the idea of formulating policies to help curb obesity and subsequently encourage healthy eating, looking quite attractive, the approach may prove ineffective.
Entirely, therefore, the food industry cannot be blamed as personal responsibility plays a huge factor. Since the coming up of the fast-food industry in the United States of America, corporations like McDonald’s have been vigorously advertising and trying to sell their food to groups who necessarily do not need it. Kids are only concerned with what attracts their attention and, therefore, will go at anything.[10] Despite fast food restaurants being blamed as the main force behind the obesity pandemic, the truth of the matter is that everyone is personally responsible. If the food industry, judging from the marketing strategies used by McDonald’s and even Pizza Hut, remains the way it is recently, then the obesity pandemic will continue to thrive.
Like the United Kingdom, other countries have attempted to ban advertisements of high sugar and fat foods, especially to children, in an attempt to tackle growing obesity levels in children. In the final analysis, marketers and their agencies should be responsible for the same vein children and their parents. The marketing of junk and unhealthy foods to children ought to be eliminated and banned in the United States of America.
REFERENCES
Adams, C. (2007). Reframing the obesity debate: McDonald’s role may surprise you. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 35(1), 154-157.
Young, L. R., & Nestle, M. (2007). Portion sizes and obesity: responses of fast-food companies. Journal of public health policy, 28(2), 238-248.
Petimar, J., Ramirez, M., Rifas-Shiman, S. L., Linakis, S., Mullen, J., Roberto, C. A., & Block, J. P. (2019). Evaluation of the impact of calorie labeling on McDonald’s restaurant menus: a natural experiment. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 16(1), 99.
https://brandongaille.com/29-important-mcdonalds-obesity-statistics/
https://fee.org/articles/the-myth-that-eating-mcdonalds-makes-you-obese/
https://blogs.ubc.ca/kami/2013/09/23/mcdonalds-advertising-to-children-is-it-ethical/
[1] https://brandongaille.com/29-important-mcdonalds-obesity-statistics/
[2] https://brandongaille.com/29-important-mcdonalds-obesity-statistics/
[3] Adams (2007).
[4] Adams, C. (2007).
[5] https://blogs.ubc.ca/kami/2013/09/23/mcdonalds-advertising-to-children-is-it-ethical/
[6] Petimar, Ramirez, Rifas-Shiman, Linakis, Mullen, Roberto, and Block (2019).
[7] https://fee.org/articles/the-myth-that-eating-mcdonalds-makes-you-obese/
[8] Young and Nestle (2007).
[9] Young and Nestle (2007).
[10] https://brandongaille.com/29-important-mcdonalds-obesity-statistics/