McDonald's Will Stop Pushing Its Food on Report Cards, Thanks to Grass-Roots Campaign

Note from Connie: Parents, I urge you to pay attention to this inspiring story. It shows the power of rallying people together to fight to toss junk-food ads out of your children's schools. Jennifer Moore brings you this report.

The onslaught of junk-food advertising aimed at kids sometimes seems unstoppable.

But thanks, in part, to one spirited mom in Seminole County, Florida, fast food giant McDonald's will stop using the report cards to push their products to 27,000 impressionable kids.

This positive development was reported by Stuart Elliot in the New York Times, Dave Weber in the Orlando Sentinel, and Emily Bryson York in Advertising Age magazine.

Things began when mother Susan Pagan was shocked when her fourth-grade daughter came home with a report card plastered with Ronald McDonald, the golden arches, and photos of Happy Meal items like Chicken McNuggets. (Being a mom to a young girl myself, I shudder to think how I'd react if my daughter arrived home with such a blatant ad, along with her grades.)

Hurrah for Pagan, because she wasn't content to take this lying down. The furious mother sounded the alarm by calling the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood (CFCC), who rounded up thousands of complaints from other angry parents.

The report card ads were part of a promotion called "Made the Grade," which this SUGAR SHOCK! Blog covered here.

For this promotion, elementary school kids in Seminole County could get a free Happy Meal if they got all As and Bs, had good attendance or behaved well in school.

McDonald's spokesman William Whitman told the New York Times that his company canned the promotion “because we believe the focus should be on the importance of a good education."

I think the media firestorm this horrendous idea stirred up is a more likely explanation for the about face, but either way, I'm glad McDonald's saw the light.

Unfortunately, although the report cards will be purged of McDonald's ads, kids in nine Florida counties who meet the promotion's criteria can still get the free food until the end of the 2007-2008 school year, Weber of the Orlando Sentinel reports.

It's also too bad that Pagan and the CFCC had to speak out in first place. I mean, school officials really should have known better than to let McDonald's turn their report cards into fast food ads, especially when so many American kids are overweight or obese.

But kudos of Pagan and the CFCC! Maybe now other parents will be inspired to fight back against junk food ads to children.

Jennifer Moore of SUGAR SHOCK! Blog