unconventional branding

AMEN! I think that no matter how effective the branding, there is a certain level of responsibility for parents to regulate. Was Mr. Ronald effective in strengthening the brand – YES! Is he the direct cause for child obesity – NO! Btw – I wonder how Ronald stayed so skinny? Maybe he remembers the good old days of moderation!

I agree that responsibility for ones’ health and dietary habits begins at home; however there is such a thing as social responsibility that falls on all public figures (including large corporations like McDonalds) and should be considered while developing brand image and strategy. Though I don’t have any particular issues with Ronald himself, I was flabbergasted when I saw the McDonalds TV commercials that aired during the Olympics, in which Olympic champions are shown chowing down on chicken nuggets, burgers and milk shakes while McDonalds makes the claim that now “you don’t have to be an Olympic athlete to eat like one.” It is one thing to have a happy clown mascot, and it is quite another to imply to children or adults that the way to becomeing an Olympic athlete is by eating McDonalds (or even that the athletes themselves frequent such a place, as I doubt they do).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdhWIs76K80

In the case of McDonald’s, caving to pressure from people wanting them to get rid of the Ronald is probably one of the worst things the brand could do. What would they replace him with – Timmy the Healthfood Koala Bear?

All you have to do is watch one afternoon of cartoons to realize that advertising food to children is big, big business. Junk food, candy, and even fruit and milk are all shown in fast-moving, colorful ads to be “the most mind blowing and fun experience ever”. While McDonald’s has moved toward actions like offering “apple dippers” in lieu of fries, and making nutritional information on every item available on both the website and in restaurants, plenty of manufacturers that make food with little or no nutritional value advertise just as heartily. Since these ads suck in kids’ interest by associating an “experience” with food, parents think that the messages are somehow unfair. And perhaps they all are, but poor Ronald is like Starbuck’s: some people love to hate a business that is doing well.

The problem is not Ronald or McDonalds. The latter has made a concerted effort to add healthy dishes to their menu. Responsibility for a child’s diet resides with the parents…they don’t have let junior order a Big Mac with french fries and Coke rather than a salad with unsweetened ice tea! Trying to control the supply of unhealthy food options rather than controlling demand is no different than trying control the illicit drug problem by just focusing on supply. And we all know how successful that’s been! Where there’s a demand, there’s always, always, always a supply.

@Lucy Caige: Coome on Lucy! I don’t belive that you (especially if you work in an advertising company) understood that TV commercial is about beeing an olympic be eating at McDonalds?! The message is different, is eating like one not beeing like one.

Social responsibility is uppon parents on first and then in school. Why? Simple, think about the formal and informal education that kids should have grasp and to know that everytime, the real life beats the movies.

I hope that McDonalds will advertise more their CSR campaigns (even isn’t ok to do so) because in this way, the limited people at Corporate Accountability International to think again about their hypocrisy.

Many of you probably noted that during a recent shareholders meeting, McDonald’s decided not to remove Ronald from their advertising campaigns. While they understand the obesity issues in the US, they recognized that Ronald is not the cause. The majority of comments they received on this topic were similar to my original post – people need to take responsibility for their own actions. McDonald’s has made a number of changes over the past several years to improve the quality of their food. We would expect that they will continue to do this as it is good business for them and it’s the socially responsible thing to do.