Ronald McDonald 'Retirement'

It is true, by the way, that obesity features regularly in my debates. This is because I am passionate about the wellbeing of society in general and of the health of the obese in particular and that is why I believe Ronald McDonald should be retired. I will elaborate on this shortly, but first I think it is important to put the McDonald's brand into its true historical context. For those of you who don't care about the real story behind McDonald's, please skip to the seventh paragraph from last, but those of you who would like to know the truth behind the world's largest restaurant chain, please read on. Back in the early 1950's a semi-literate Italian immigrant called Ronaldo Donaldo set up a stall next to the circus on Coney Island beach. From this stall he sold meatballs with spaghetti and, in order to attract customers, he wore a clown's outfit. He also erected a large sign above the stall on which he painted a large letter "M" because, being unable to read and write properly, he couldn't spell the word "meatballs". As it happened, sales of Donaldo's meatballs were slow, largely due to the fact that there was a very popular chicken burger stall located next door. This stall was run by a retired army officer from Kentucky who went by the name of Colonel Sanders. Then, late one summer's morning, before Colonel Sanders had opened his stall, Donaldo heard a commotion coming from the nearby circus. Somehow, a herd of obese people had escaped from the freak show and were stampeding through the crowds. When they caught the scent of Donaldo's meatballs on the breeze, they headed directly for his stall and fell upon his Italian-style ground beef snacks and began to devour them greedily. Now, by time the obese people's keeper had rounded them all up and corralled them back into their enclosure, Donaldo had nothing left to sell apart from a few dozen meatballs that had been knocked to the ground in the chaos and had been trampled on. Forlornly, Donaldo scooped the flattened meatballs up, put them back in their trays and wondered what to do next. Shortly, Colonel Sanders arrived and Donaldo told him what happened and how he was sure nobody would want to buy meatballs that fat people had trodden on. The Colonel agreed that nobody would buy squashed meatballs but if they would buy chicken burgers, they might also go for beef burgers and he offered to sell Donaldo some of his burger buns to put them in. Donaldo was sceptical but he had little choice so he bought three-dozen buns from the Colonel and decided to paint "beef burgers" under the big "M" on his sign. Now, being only semi-literate hampered him here and, although he was able to copy the word "burgers" from Colonel Sander's sign, he couldn't spell the word "beef" so he just wrote "ham" instead. To Donaldo's amazement and Colonel Sander's dismay, these revolutionary new "ham burgers" did a roaring trade and he had sold them all within the hour. Buoyed by this success, Donaldo decided to abandon his meatballs and spaghetti altogether and only sell burgers in future. To his delight, and his considerable enrichment, the huge popularity of his burgers enabled him to expand his business and within a few years there were Donaldo's Ham Burgers outlets all over New York. The success of Donaldo's enterprise soon caught the attention of a disgraced British aristocrat by the name of Lord Kroc of Shite. This ennobled English exile bought the business from Donaldo at a price he couldn't refuse. Now, although Kroc changed the names of the restaurants slightly from "Donaldo's Ham Burgers" to "McDonald's Hamburgers" he did retain the trademark "M" for "meatballs" on the signs and he also used images of Donaldo dressed in his customary clown costume in the company's advertising as these were what regular customers associated the brand with. So, from those relatively humble beginnings, Kroc grew McDonald's into the world's biggest restaurant chain and although few people now remember Ronaldo Donaldo by name, a picture of him renamed Ronald McDonald but still dressed as a clown will be instantly recognisable to any obese kid today. This brings me nicely to my main argument; which is: that because the Ronald McDonald character is cynically aimed directly at children (1), he should be retired. You see, until recently, obesity in children was very rare indeed but, in direct correlation with the expansion of fast food chains such as McDonald's, it has grown to a point where now 15% of children (aged 6-19 years) in the US are obese. (2) We all know that consuming too many calories and not doing enough exercise leads to weight gain and that the McDonald's menu is notoriously unhealthy. The items on McDonald's Happy Meals children's menu range between 470-650 calories and 18-31g fat (3) which represents between a large proportion of a child's recommended daily intake. (4) Nevertheless, McDonald's still employ the Ronald McDonald character to attract children to their outlets. The point my opponent made about taking personal responsibility is well noted, but clearly, some parents are not responsible and do not make decisions in the best interests of their children's health. That's why, on occasions, governments have to step in to protect children and is why, for example, tobacco products and alcohol, including the Bud beer my opponent claims is marketed at youngsters, may not be legally sold to, or consumed by, minors. For the same reason, inappropriate advertising campaigns such as those featuring Ronald McDonald, which are potentially damaging to children's health, should be withdrawn. Thank you. (1) . http://www.mcdonalds.com... (2) . http://www.emedicinehealth.com... (3) . http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com... (4) . http://www.waitrose.com...