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January
17, 2008
Contact: Josh Golin (617.278.4172;
jgolin@jbcc.harvard.edu)
For
Immediate Release
Ronald McDonald Report
Card Ads Expelled from Seminole County
CCFC Campaign Ends
Controversial In-School Marketing Program
Following a campaign led by the Campaign
for a Commercial-Free Childhood and nearly two-thousand parent
complaints, McDonald’s has ended its
controversial report card advertising in
Seminole County, Florida.
Children in kindergarten through fifth-grade had been receiving
their report cards in envelopes adorned with Ronald McDonald
promising a free Happy Meal to students with good grades,
behavior, or attendance. CCFC was alerted to the advertising by
Seminole County parent Susan Pagan. The following is the
statement of CCFC’s director Dr. Susan Linn:
This is
a good day for parents and children in Seminole County and
anyone who believes that corporations should not prey on
children in schools. We are pleased that McDonald’s is
listening to parents all over the country who believe that
report cards should not be commercialized.
In the
absence of needed government regulation to protect
schoolchildren from predatory companies like McDonald’s, the
burden is on parents to be vigilant about exploitative marketing
aimed at children. One parent can make a difference. There is
no doubt that the Seminole County ads would have continued – and
violated McDonald’s pledge to stop advertising in elementary
schools – had one parent not called attention to the problem.
And when that parent was joined by other parents and CCFC
members, one of our nation’s largest corporations was forced to
back down. What we accomplished in Seminole County should put
all marketers on notice: advertising has no place in our
nation’s schools.
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