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Old 12-13-2007, 12:15 PM   #1  
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Question McDonald's offer on report card envelope ...

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/new...onalds-re.html

Good idea or bad?
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Old 12-13-2007, 04:31 PM   #2  
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I think this is pretty disgusting. McDonalds has been killing people by degrees year after year. Want a real eye-opener? Go to the McDonalds website and check out the "nutritional information" on their "food" offerings. Nothing more than sodium and saturated fat, even their "healthy" choices.

I don't regret the day I stopped eating that dreck.

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Old 12-13-2007, 04:54 PM   #3  
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This is just my opinion, but I don't think MCDONALDS is killing anyone. Bad choices, those offered by McDonalds and other places, are putting people at risk for disease due to obesity and obesity-related illnesses, but unless the folks at MickeyD's are not only forcing people against their wills to eat there, but forcing them to make bad choices from the available options, they aren't killing anyone - just providing and advertising some bad options.

There is something I would consider an "ok choice" in nearly every section of the Mcdonalds menu (the exceptions being "french fries" and "chicken nuggets/strips) as displayed with their nutritional information. I have gotten salads there, often. Even more often, I get a reduced fat vanilla ice cream cone. It is tasty, it is portion controlled, it is readily available, and it makes a great treat.

HOWEVER, I do not think that putting a coupon on report card envelopes was the most prudent choice that the school district could make, even though I don't think that going to McDonalds once a month is going to do much or any long-term harm. As all of us here are aware (or trying to learn!) one day of bad choices does not set us back much...but letting that one day turn into a week or a month does.

I do remember in elementary school getting Pizza Hut personal pan pizza coupons for the reading program...having that reward DID make me read more. There are other rewards that would work just as well, though, that aren't food related.

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Old 12-14-2007, 09:56 AM   #4  
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I do not think that corporate America should be advertising to our kids through schools. But then again, I am a dreamer!
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Old 12-15-2007, 02:55 PM   #5  
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Originally Posted by mandalinn82 View Post

I do remember in elementary school getting Pizza Hut personal pan pizza coupons for the reading program...having that reward DID make me read more. There are other rewards that would work just as well, though, that aren't food related.
I remember those things too!! lol, I liked my little pan pizzas.

But McDonalds is kinda terrible. That's kinda why I was a chubby kid. It was cheap, and my dad bought it for us everyday. I figured the difference between hamburgers and chicken early, and I always opted for the grilled chicken, but still...it wasn't something that I should have been eating all the time. Before then, I was healthy!

I don't think they should advertise that to school children since that does promote bad habits, but it's the parents that are buying it for them.
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Old 12-15-2007, 08:11 PM   #6  
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You mean to tell me that after Pizza Hut dropped out, McDonald's was the only place in town willing to put an ad on the report cards? Pul-lease....either McDonald's went very cheap or the schools just didn't try hard enough. There are restaurants out there that are very organic, good, and even uses recycling within that they could've asked to be on the report card. Heck, what was wrong with Subway in a pinch? Or Panera Bread?

Failing that, instead of using restaurants as an incentative, why not use the malls? Or Blockbuster? Or here's a radical idea....a bookstore?

The schools were just too lazy to really do their homework on this issue....which is why I really find it offensive when schools try to tell the parents that their kid is overweight, yet they still have soda machines, snack machines, and greasy pizza on the menus at the cafeteria everyday....
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Old 12-15-2007, 08:21 PM   #7  
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i like mcdonalds better than pizza hut, just my taste buds, but it is really wrong to adviertise and offer cupons to childern. I don't like the idea at all.
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Old 12-16-2007, 07:11 AM   #8  
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]There are restaurants out there that are very organic, good, and even uses recycling within that they could've asked to be on the report card.
Wow! Can you tell me about the organic restaurants where you live?
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Old 12-16-2007, 11:45 PM   #9  
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When I was in Maine for a time, there was a restaurant called O'Naturals that was divine....plus organic and very much an environmental restaurant. When I lived in Washington, D.C., there were plenty of lessor known bakeries and restaurants that used fresh veggies and fruit from their local farmer's market, and while they were a bit iffy on the environmental stuff, you could change the orders enough to where it fit your needs in particular to ensure a healthy, organic meal. The thing is, us folks in America need to get out more and start checking out all of these lesser known places because there were quite a few that were truly a gem!

For my immediate area at the moment, there's really not any restaurant around that fits this criteria...it is easier to in bigger cities than out in the suburbs or the country, I'll admit.

However, my point is, the school could've done a lot better by picking a restaurant that wasn't nearly as bad as the commerical chain restaurants like McDonald's, Arby's, Wendy's, and what have you. Or they could've avoided the issue of food period and just did theatres or skating rinks...the possibilities are endless....
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Old 12-17-2007, 09:40 AM   #10  
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I think this is pretty disgusting. McDonalds has been killing people by degrees year after year.
Honey, McDonald's isn't killing anybody.

The only way we could say that is if they'd put a gun to our heads and MAKE us walk through the door of their restaurant and MAKE us order a Big Mac and fries.

We chose to do that ourselves. It's nobody's fault but ours. McDonald's didn't make us fat - WE made us fat.

However, on the subject of advertising on report cards and whether or not I agree with it? No, I don't agree with it. McDonald's, frankly, is really starting to "p" me off with their advertising. In other countries (where it's allowed) they even use sex to sell their food.

They're getting out of hand. They don't care about our kids. It all boils down to money for them and that's all.
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Old 12-26-2007, 10:12 PM   #11  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mandalinn82 View Post
This is just my opinion, but I don't think MCDONALDS is killing anyone. Bad choices, those offered by McDonalds and other places, are putting people at risk for disease due to obesity and obesity-related illnesses, but unless the folks at MickeyD's are not only forcing people against their wills to eat there, but forcing them to make bad choices from the available options, they aren't killing anyone - just providing and advertising some bad options.

There is something I would consider an "ok choice" in nearly every section of the Mcdonalds menu (the exceptions being "french fries" and "chicken nuggets/strips) as displayed with their nutritional information. I have gotten salads there, often. Even more often, I get a reduced fat vanilla ice cream cone. It is tasty, it is portion controlled, it is readily available, and it makes a great treat.

HOWEVER, I do not think that putting a coupon on report card envelopes was the most prudent choice that the school district could make, even though I don't think that going to McDonalds once a month is going to do much or any long-term harm. As all of us here are aware (or trying to learn!) one day of bad choices does not set us back much...but letting that one day turn into a week or a month does.

I do remember in elementary school getting Pizza Hut personal pan pizza coupons for the reading program...having that reward DID make me read more. There are other rewards that would work just as well, though, that aren't food related.
totally agree with this.
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Old 12-27-2007, 02:23 AM   #12  
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I'm positive that if you dislike your school's reinforcement for good grades, they would welcome you with open arms to volunteer your time to help find healthy alternatives that would make everyone happy. Until then, I guess I appreciate the effort to encourage kids to excel.
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Old 12-27-2007, 03:55 AM   #13  
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Thumbs up It's just capitalism at work

One high leverage way to help our kids to make wise choices is to teach the elected officials on our school boards that we oppose advertising bad choices to vulnerable minds.

One possibility is to email a member of your school board to let them know your opposition. Another is to spend some time next election working for a candidate that opposes the idea. Another is to vote accordingly. Change is possible.

[ /font=high horse]


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Old 12-27-2007, 01:25 PM   #14  
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Everything I've ever read and heard on the subject of children's comprehension of advertising suggests that they are not yet equipped to tell the difference between fact and hyperbole. In other words, if McDonald's says it, it's true. And if the name McDonald's is on a school document, it must be good and healthy.

I agree that adults make their choices. (To an extent - I think government deregulation has heightened consumer risks substantially in the past decade.) But children believe those in authority. When the kids ask their parents to take them to McDonald's because of the coupon on the report card, are they really making an informed decision? I don't think so. The parents are, but what kind of pressure are they under in a situation like that?

Not to mention, I'm totally opposed to corporate advertising in the education system. A captive, impressionable audience shouldn't be exposed to profit-driven media that has nothing to do with learning.
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Old 12-27-2007, 02:21 PM   #15  
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I'm positive that if you dislike your school's reinforcement for good grades, they would welcome you with open arms to volunteer your time to help find healthy alternatives that would make everyone happy. Until then, I guess I appreciate the effort to encourage kids to excel.
I think it should be the parents' job to encourage their children to excel. When your kid brings home a good report card, take them out to a movie or buy them a new outfit or set aside some time to play your child's favorite game with them or make them their favorite (healthier than McD's) dinner or have a fun movie night where they get to stay up past their bedtime or...It's nice that the school wants to encourage them also, but must they do so using food (particularly unhealthy food)?

I think when junk food (i.e., McD's Happy Meal) is used as a reward, even if only once a month or even once a school quarter, it becomes engrained in the child's mind that doing something good = eating junk food. I grew up with that mentality, and once I was old enough to get my own food, I started "rewarding" myself with junk food for any positive thing I did. Hello, 300+ pounds

For me, the question isn't whether or not this is advertising; it's whether or not it's setting children up for good habits as an adult, and to me, the answer is a resounding no.

I don't have children of my own yet, but even when I was babysitting other people's children, when the gradeschool-aged daughter did something good, I took her and her little brother to the playground to play on the swings and slide and such. It didn't cost any money, was healthy for them to do, and they always had fun.
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