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Josh Golin (617-896-9369; josh@commercialfreechildhood.org
Advocacy groups around the world are urging McDonald's CEO, Don Thompson, to stand by his assertion that Ronald McDonald does not make appearances in schools. At McDonald's 2014 Annual Shareholder Meeting, Mr. Thompson said, "in schools and our restaurants you never see Ronald McDonald." He named exceptions to the policy in restaurants, but not in schools.
Advocacy groups around the world are urging McDonald's CEO, Don Thompson, to stand by his assertion that Ronald McDonald does not make appearances in schools. At McDonald's 2014 Annual Shareholder Meeting, Mr. Thompson said, "in schools and our restaurants you never see Ronald McDonald." He named exceptions to the policy in restaurants, but not in schools. Yet Ronald McDonald does, in fact, regularly appear in schools around the world and many regional McDonald's websites advertise the fast food mascot's availability for school visits.
In a letter written and organized by Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (United States) and Instituto Alana (Brazil), a coalition of 48 public health, education, and children's organizations asked Mr. Thompson to widely publicize McDonald's new policy that Ronald McDonald will not be seen in schools and update the company's pledge with the United States Council of Better Business Bureaus' Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. The coalition also urged Mr. Thompson to clearly convey this policy to the company's local franchises and regional marketing associations around the world to ensure that Ronald McDonald no longer promotes the McDonald's brand to captive audiences of schoolchildren.
"The public statement by Mr. Thompson, McDonald's CEO, appears to indicate that he recognizes that schools are not an appropriate forum for promoting the McDonald's brand," said Jennifer Harris, Director of Marketing Initiatives at the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. "However, he must be unaware that Ronald McDonald regularly visits schools and that local franchises actively promote these visits. For example, a web page entitled 'School Shows with Ronald McDonald' for the Houston area states that 'Ronald McDonald would love to visit your students and perform an educational school show.' We urge Mr. Thompson to stand by his words and end this common McDonald's marketing practice that takes advantage of a captive audience of young children."
Despite Mr. Thompson's remarks in June, McDonald's websites continue to advertise Ronald McDonald's availability for schools. CCFC and Alana also found dozens of recent examples of in-school appearances by Ronald McDonald. For example, in February 2014, he appeared before over 350 students at Carl Sandburg Elementary School in Joliet, Illinois and on March 28, 2014 he performed two shows at Southern Elementary School in Falmouth, Kentucky. The coalition has also documented Ronald McDonald appearances in elementary schools and preschools in other countries, including China, Australia, The Netherlands, and Brazil.
For Isabella Henriques, Director of the Children and Consumption Project at Alana, Ronald McDonald visits to schools are not only exploitative but a violation of Brazilian regulations: "Children can't discern advertising from content. In schools, it becomes even more unclear for them--after all, it's as if the institution validated the brand. For us, advertising in schools should be absolutely unacceptable--as clearly stated by the 163 Conanda resolution. In other words, such an action is incompliant with Brazilian Standards and Regulations."
Added Oliver Huizinga, Campaigner for the consumer rights organization foodwatch International, Europe, "Should a fox keep the geese? Of course not. Schools must become ad-free zones and McDonald's should immediately stop all activities at schools. 40 million overweight children under the age of 5 worldwide are highly alerting--we have to create healthy environments for children. McDonald's is part of this problem and not the solution."
"School visits by junk food mascots undermine my efforts as parent to instill healthy eating habits in my children," said Casey Hinds of US Healthy Kids. "Ronald McDonald is the Joe Camel of fast food and represents an unhealthy brand. It is time to stop using schools to increase profits for a company that contributes to rising rates of Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and obesity in children."
In the United Kingdom, Malcolm Clark, Co-ordinator of Sustain's Children's Food Campaign, said, "Schools should be healthy havens where children are free from the messages and pressures of the food industry to consume their products. Whether it is the food that is served, branded teaching materials, or sponsored sports equipment there should be no place for the companies whose core business is to sell us food and drink that is often high in fat, sugar, and salt. That means no Ronald McDonald anywhere near schools. And it should also mean government rules in place to protect children from such junk food marketing beyond the school gates too."
"As CEO of McDonald's, Don Thompson faces a critical choice," said CCFC's Executive Director, Dr. Susan Linn. "He can respect the wishes of the international public health community and ensure that the company's franchises live up to his word. Or he can damage his own credibility and the McDonald's brand by continuing to allow the inappropriate use of Ronald McDonald as a marketing vehicle in schools around the world. We urge him to do the right thing."
The complete text of the coalition letter to CEO Thompson can be found at https://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/mcdonalds.
Fairplay, formerly known as Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, educates the public about commercialism's impact on kids' wellbeing and advocates for the end of child-targeted marketing. Fairplay organizes parents to hold corporations accountable for their marketing practices, advocates for policies to protect kids, and works with parents and professionals to reduce children's screen time.
"U.S. funding of Israeli genocide is ballooning as the Israeli army uses ever more lethal bombs," said Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on Palestine, said Sunday after bombing that killed 100 people, mostly civilians, in Gaza City.
The office of the Palestinian Authority's president is holding the U.S. government responsible for a weekend bombing in Gaza that killed an estimated 100 people, including at least 11 children. The victims of the attack on the al-Tabin school were blown to 'pieces,' according to video evidence and on-the-ground reporting, when U.S.-provided missiles were fired on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City.
In the wake of the attack that stirred global outrage and condemnation Saturday, the Palestinian presidency's spokesperson Nabih Abu Rudeineh condemned the massacre and said the PA held the Biden administration "responsible for the massacre due to its financial, military, and political support for Israel."
Rudeineh demanded the U.S. pressure the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cease indiscriminate attacks that have left hundreds of thousands of Palestinians dead, wounded, and displaced over recent months. In addition, he said, the U.S. must conform to international law by ending its "blind support" to Israel "that leads to the killing of thousands of innocent civilians, including children, women, and the elderly."
As Common Dreams previously reported, the bombing of the al-Tabin school complex came just hours after the U.S. State Department announced the release of $3.5 billion in military aid for Israel and made new weapons transfers available to help refresh the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stockpiles.
"U.S. funding of Israeli genocide is ballooning as the Israeli army uses ever more lethal bombs," said Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on Palestine, in an online post Sunday. "The ones used yesterday in the Al-Tabin School massacre sliced bodies to the point of making them unrecognizable. They are now identified by weight: 70kg bag = 1 adult. Revolting."
The head of Gaza's Government Media Office told Al Jazeera that the three bombs dropped on the school weighed 2,000 pounds each, matching the size of the MK-84 munitions provided by the thousands to the IDF by the United States over the last year.
"Another day of horror in Gaza, another school hit with reports of dozens of Palestinian killed among them women, children and older people,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), Saturday in response to the attack. "It's time for these horrors unfolding under our watch to end. We cannot let the unbearable become a new norm. The more recurrent, the more we lose our collective humanity."
The UN human rights office said the latest attack was "at least the 21st strike on a school, each serving as a shelter, that the UN [the agency] has recorded since 4 July. These strikes have resulted in at least 274 fatalities, including women and children."
Responding to claims by the IDF that the bombing was aimed at militants it claimed were using the facility, OHCHR said in a statement that "co-location by armed groups of military objectives with civilians" does not release Israel from its "obligation to comply strictly with [international humanitarian law], including the principles of proportionality, distinction and precaution when carrying out military operations. Israel, as the occupying power, is obliged to provide the population it has forcibly displaced with basic humanitarian needs, including safe shelter."
Asked about the situation in Gaza on Saturday, Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic nominee for president, said during a campaign stop in Phoenix, Arizona that she and President Joe Biden have been working "around the clock" to secure a ceasefire deal that would see the fighting end and Israeli hostages held by Hamas returned safely.
Specifically about Saturday's bombing of the school complex, Harris said, "Yet again, far too many civilians have been killed."
"Yet again, there are far too many civilians who've been killed. Israel has a right to go after the terrorists that are Hamas. But as I have said many, many times, they also have, I believe, an important responsibility to avoid civilian casualties."
-- Kamala Harris on Gaza pic.twitter.com/Ir0bysiFT9
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) August 10, 2024
Despite global outrage over Saturday's attack, the Israeli military overnight Sunday issued new evacuation orders for southern Gaza.
"This is our final chance to secure a deal that will save lives," said one family member. "Netanyahu continues to trade on the lives of hostages in exchange for maintaining his seat of power."
Thousands marched in the streets of Israeli cities on Saturday to demand that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu end his sabotage of negotiations that would see an end to the fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas for over nine months.
As human rights defenders and world leaders condemned the Israeli government throughout the day over the latest "heinous" massacre of innocent civilians in Gaza—this time at another school-turned-shelter in Gaza where an estimate 100 people or more were killed by IDF missiles overnight—family members of hostages were among those who accused Netanyahu of keeping the carnage going in order to maintain power.
In Tel Aviv, demonstrators held up signs that read: "Crime Minister!"; "Bring Them Home!"; and "Bibi, Stop Wasting Time!"
Einav Zangauker, identified by Haaretz as the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, accused Netanyahu of using victims like her son "as pawns to preserve his power."
With the United States, Qatar, and Egypt trying to hold a new round of talks next week, Zangauker said that Israel has "reached a crucial moment" that Netanyahu must not be allowed to sabotage.
"This is our final chance to secure a deal that will save lives," she said. "Netanyahu continues to trade on the lives of hostages in exchange for maintaining his seat of power."
While the heads of Arab nations have told President Joe Biden he must put more of a squeeze on Netanyahu in order to compel him towards a deal, Israel's own defense chiefs have indicated Netanyahu does not want any such deal.
The assassination of Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month by Israel was one clear signal that negotiations—for which Haniyeh was a key player—is not how the Israelis under Netanyahu want to proceed.
Meanwhile, news on Friday that the Biden administration was releasing another $3.5 billion in military aid and weapons sales for Israel indicated that the U.S. president is not applying any pressure on the prime minister ahead of next week's talks.
Ghadir Hani, an anti-war leader in the Standing Together and Women Wage Peace organizations, spoke at a demonstration in the town of Caesarea on Saturday where she said that in addition to the safe return of Israeli hostages, a deal is "also necessary for the sake of the thousands of innocents in Gaza, whose agonized deaths breaks the heart of everyone in whom humanity remains."
The two-day event in Chicago ahead of the DNC, said one organizer, "will highlight a very practical, realistic agenda that promotes a program that directly addresses the most pressing concerns of average American households."
Organizers behind the "Progressive Central 2024" event scheduled to take place just ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago later this month announced Friday that Sen. Bernie Sanders will be the keynote speaker alongside a roster of lawmakers and movement leaders determined to keep the left's working-class agenda moving forward ahead of November's election—and beyond.
Nearby in downtown Chicago and just before the DNC kicks off, the two-day sideline event is being orchestrated by Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), The Nation magazine, The Arab American Institute, and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.
Alan Minsky, executive director of PDA, explained to Common Dreams that it's being "organized around a simple concept: what if the progressive wing of the Democratic Party was putting on a national convention—like the DNC or RNC. What programs and ideas would be foregrounded?"
"We all know very well that not only political offices are at stake this November, but also the very future of American democratic life." —Harvey J. Kaye
The answer to that question, he said, will be "nothing like the mass media's familiar mischaracterization of progressives as a group of outliers, (angrily) voicing a litany of complaints" toward those with more power.
"Rather, very much in contrast," said Minsky, the event—which will take place August 18 and 19 at the Chicago Teachers Union building—"will highlight a very practical, realistic agenda that promotes a program that directly addresses the most pressing concerns of average American households—and is very in line with the wishes and aspirations of a majority of the American voting public."
In addition to Sanders, prominent members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus will attend, including CPC Chair Pramila Jayapal and Reps. Ro Khanna, Jamie Raskin, Barbara Lee, Raul Grijalva, Maxwell Frost, Danny Davis, Jonathan Jackson, and Jesus 'Chuy' Garcia.
According to organizers, other scheduled speakers include former Ohio State Senator and activist Nina Turner; The Nation's longtime political correspondent John Nichols and the magazine's president Bhaskar Sunkara; Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison; NOW president Christian Nunes; attorney and Free Speech For People founder John Bonifaz; University of Wisconsin-Green Bay professor of history Harvey J. Kaye; and many others.
"The event will bring together a diverse group of voices in favor of sharing our respective progressive hopes and aspirations," Kaye told Common Dreams on Friday.
Kaye, who earlier this week published an essay and comic strip comic strip at Common Dreams with cartoonist Matt "The Letterhack" Strackbein on the need for a New Economic Bill of Rights for the 21st Century, said his hope is that attendees can galvanize around a shared vision and set of organizing principles for the future.
"We all know very well that not only political offices are at stake this November, but also the very future of American democratic life," said Kaye. "And if all goes well, we will develop a more strongly shared understanding of what needs truly doing."
"No more neoliberalism," he said, referring to the toxic strain of economic thinking that has infected both the Democratic and Republican parties for far too long and suggesting that the days of privatization, austerity for public programs, and hostility toward universal public goods must come to an end. "As FDR said: to win, the Democratic Party must be the party of 'militant liberalism' that is, social democracy."
While Sanders remains an independent lawmaker representing Vermont in the U.S. Senate, he caucuses with the Democrats and has been one of the Biden administration's key supporters on a number of issues. Sanders stood by Biden's 2024 campaign even as it struggled and even as Sanders repeatedly pressured the Democratic president to change course when on his support for Israel's relentless assault on Gaza.
"My hope is that the progressives leave more emboldened and with more knowledge than when they arrived." —Nina Turner
In public appearances in recent weeks and months, including since embracing the emergence of the Harris-Walz ticket since Biden stepped aside last month, Sanders has made it known that his prescription for beating Trump and the Republican in November is by galvanizing working class voters.
"Good policy for working-class voters is also good politics," Sanders said earlier this week in response to findings of a survey, he commissioned that broad support for progressive policies by swing state voters in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
"It should come as no surprise that expanding Social Security, raising the minimum wage, and capping rent increases are very popular," he said Monday. "The political class would do well to listen to the clear directive of American voters, and deliver. The simple fact is: Whether you're running for the White House or a city council seat, if you stand with working people, they will stand with you."
Nina Turner, a longtime Sanders ally, told Common Dreams that she looks forward to being at the Chicago event to remind progressives just ahead of the DNC "that the policies that we are pushing are not only popular among most Americans—no matter how they identify politically—but that we on the right side of history."
"I am excited by PDA's vision to create a space for progressive to gather, talk to one another, and be lifted up, because that is important," Turner explained by phone. "It's very easy to get wary in the type of work that progressives are doing in terms of standing up for what is just and for what is right. Ultimately, the goal of the progressive agenda is to create a human rights economy—an economy that sees and cares for every individual in society."
Turner, who remains a member of the Democratic National Committee and will be attending convention, said progressives are right to stand against the neoliberalism that has dominated the Democratic Party for too long and the neo-fascism represented by Donald Trump and his Republican Party. "They are out of touch," she said. "They are the extremists. We have to remember that and we have to start saying that in our rhetoric every single day."
Marking the start of the contemporary progressive era as one that emerged out of Sanders' 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, Turner—who served as national co-chair of his 2020 run—acknowledged that the movement is still maturing, and needs to mature, as it moves forward.
"We have to have an inside game and an outside game," she said. "We have to make demands and we have to have consequences for our demands not being made. We have to play chess and not checkers."
It has "been hard at times to keep our movement together," Turner said, "we have to recognize we are absolutely stronger together. There's a saying, 'If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.' So we have to be reminded of that collective agenda that we can call get behind and push for that agenda."
Turner said progressives, whether they consider themselves part of the Democratic Party apparatus or not, have to—in the words of activist and rapper Michael "Killer Mike" Render—"plot, plan, strategize, organize, and mobilize" if they want to have a chance of gaining ground.
"My hope is that the progressives leave more emboldened and with more knowledge than when they arrived," said Turner. "We must constantly remind ourselves that justice is not a destination, but a journey that every generation must take as they pass the baton to the next and the next and the next."