McDonald’s at the Mall (©photo by lespowell, courtesy of morgueFile.com)

Measure helped spur watershed year in curbing junk food marketing to kids

San Francisco’s groundbreaking Healthy Meals Incentive law has taken effect. The law sets basic nutritional standards for kids’ meals that are accompanied by toy giveaways. Its passage last November garnered international media attention, helping spur a cascade of developments in curbing junk food marketing to kids.

“This law is an important achievement not only for the health of San Francisco’s children, but for children nationwide,” said San Francisco City Supervisor Eric Mar, the sponsor of the measure. “We are ensuring parents and children have real choice when they eat out – especially in communities saturated with McDonald’s-style junk food. It’s common sense for a healthier America that I’d encourage the food industry to act on immediately.”

Healthy Food for Kids a National Issue

Shortly after the policy’s passage, the Los Angeles City Council declared a moratorium on new fast food establishments in South Los Angeles, an area where fast food predominates and diet-related disease is disproportionately high.

New York City introduced a measure similar to San Francisco’s, proposing nutritional standards for kid’s meals served with toys. Other local and state governments have since tested the waters or are currently considering advancing related polices.

Nationally, a federal interagency working group also proposed new recommendations for marketing junk food to kids after 30 years of industry intimidation to remain on the sidelines.

Fast Food Giants Respond to SF Law

Perhaps most telling of San Francisco’s Healthy Meals Incentive’s impact was the industry response.

Jack in the Box, the country’s fifth largest hamburger chain, announced it was discontinuing toy giveaways at its 2,200 stores nationwide. KFC Australia not only dropped the toys but offered, “we think the idea of toys being given away with meals has had its day…we hope this decision today will support parents in making dietary decisions on behalf of their children which aren't influenced in any way by pressure to choose the meal that has a toy."

“The San Francisco Healthy Meals Initiative and the public support for it put the fast food industry on notice,” said Kelle Louaillier, executive director of Corporate Accountability International. “Some corporations responded in good faith. Others responded with half measures and PR. Still others dug in their heels. All were forced to respond and reckon with a practice that makes children sick.”

Corporate Accountability International partnered with a broad coalition of health professionals, local parents, and small businesses to secure passage of the Healthy Meal Incentive Ordinance despite the dedicated opposition of McDonald’s and its trade association.

Healthy Eating Eating Healthy (©photo by eprzygoda, courtesy of morgueFile.com)

Top-Dollar Lobbyists, Public Relations Firms & Lawyers Lose Battle

The burger giant enlisted top-dollar lobbyists, public relations firms and lawyers to oppose the law. Failing to overcome grassroots support, McDonald’s executives threatened to sue the city upon the measure’s implementation. Its trade association even went so far as to work under the radar to persuade state lawmakers in Florida and Arizona to pass a state law preventing local governments from enacting similar measures.

But such threats and backroom deals only solidified the resolve of health advocates. In May, Corporate Accountability International launched a partnership with a still-growing network of some of the country’s leading cardiologists, children’s psychologists, pediatricians and other health professionals to call on McDonald’s directly to cut the junk food promotions to kids. In July, the American Academy of Pediatrics took a further step, based on a growing body of science, suggesting a total ban on junk food marketing.

"Bad Food is Bad Medicine"

"Food is medicine. Which means bad food is bad medicine,” said Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco. “Kids cannot choose to refrain from taking bad medicine when prescribed. Coercing children to consume food with questionable nutritive value is not all that different from medical malpractice. And the results of this bad medicine, in terms of childhood obesity, are there for all to see. I applaud San Francisco's fortitude in taking steps to spare the health of a generation.”

As pressure grew on McDonald’s and other chains, a host of McDonald’s competitors voluntarily committed to reduce the amount of fat, salt, sugar, and calories in kids’ meals over the next decade. Never mind the commitments were unenforceable, lax and self-imposed, McDonald’s refused to join the club.

Instead the burger giant took its own significant step to avoid further regulation, adding apple slices to all Happy Meals and reducing the portion size of its kids’ fries. The action was a sure sign McDonald’s is responding to a public increasingly disenchanted with its predatory marketing, if only a baby step. The temporary positive PR belies the failure of these “new and improved” meals to meet San Francisco’s proposed nutritional recommendations for kids’ meals. Most concerning, McDonald’s actions has made no move to reduce its annual $400 million plus global budget for marketing its exceedingly unhealthy brand to children.

Parent Views Corporation as "Abusive"

For San Francisco parents like Caroline Grannan, McDonald’s calculations only reinforce the bad taste the corporation left in the mouths of city residents last year.

"McDonald’s and its spin doctors couldn’t have been more condescending to parents here,” said Caroline Grannan, mother of two. “First they told us they had the right to promote whatever they want at any expense to our children. Then they told us that if our children got sick as a result, it was wholly our fault. San Francisco’s new law has challenged the industry’s blame-shifting in a profound way – calling an abusive industry to account for its devastating role in today’s health crisis."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, right now, one in three children are at risk for developing type-2 diabetes in their lifetime as a result of diets high in McDonald’s-style junk food. This generation may be the first in U.S. history to live shorter lives than their parents.

About Corporate Accountability

Corporate Accountability International (formerly Infact) is a membership organization that has, for the last 35 years, successfully advanced campaigns protecting health, the environment and human rights. Value [the] Meal is Corporate Accountability International’s campaign dedicated to reversing the global epidemic of diet-related disease by challenging the fast food industry to curb a range of its practices.

To view some of the previous posts on the topic, go to:

1. It is Time to Retire Ronald McDonald for the Sake of Kids

2. Oly Santa Claus is Better Known to Kids than Ronald McDonald

3. Junk Food Ads are Prevalent on TV Programs for Kids

4. Yale Study: TV Ads Contribute to Obesity in Children

5. Ads Make Junk Food Sound Healthy for Kids

6. Selling to Kids

7. Food Giants Still Marketing Junk Food to Kids

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