Case of Ronald McDonalds as One of the Advertising Mascot in Fast-Food Industry - Assignment Example

Case Study Name Professor Institution Course Date Case Study Introduction There is increased rate of obesity in children in most developed countries such as United States of America, UK and Spain, and this is due to the lifestyle that they are introduced to at their tender age. Obesity in children is a disorder that needs immediate attention because the consequences affect them throughout their growth and development. Obese children tend to be depressed and stigmatized due to their body shapes as compared to the normal children of the same age or gender. It is the obligation of the parents and guardians to guide children on the nature of foods and snacks that they need to consume to help them avoid developing obesity. The food manufacturing companies also need to have a wide understanding of the effects of high levels of cholesterol in the food that children consume (Swinburn, Egger & Raza, 1999: 563-70). The advertising organizations are supposed to establish appropriate health messages to accompany the packages of the products that they advertise to encourage users on the need to participate in activities that trigger body fitness. This paper aims at analyzing the case of Ronald McDonalds as one of the advertising mascot in fast-food industry. It will achieve this through responding to the following questions. Question One: How McDonald should respond when ads Promoting Healthy Lifestyles featuring Ronald McDonald are equated with Joe Camel and Cigarette ads According to the case, it is not advisable to eliminate Ronald McDonald from making advertisement on fast foods, but rather people should be made aware of the harmful effects associated with overconsumption of calories without getting involved in physical exercises such as jogging or running. Mac has variety of healthy options that it can integrate in promoting healthy foods, and more importantly create awareness campaigns regarding the quality of their products and the ingredients contained in the products that they advertise. Ronald is considered to be among the best mascots and its popularity and reputation is hard to rebut because the larger population has positive perception towards Ronald McDonalds. It is observed to be contributing immensely to charities and supporting the unfortunate children among other deeds that have positively built the image of Ronald, and therefore even if it is eliminated people will still appreciate its contributions unlike that of Joe Camel and cigarette ads (Sallis & Glanz, 2009: 123-54). These positive contributions to the public and the targeted group will help in rebuilding the reputation and image of Ronald McDonald. It is through making the public aware that they need to change any negative notion they have towards Ronald that they will recognize the positive impacts of using Ronald because it’s the favorite as children and parents love it. Protesting against the mascot is not the solution, but promoting healthy lifestyle is the best measure that be implemented to boast Ronald McDonalds and fast food industries. Question Two: Merits of the Law Proposed by France that would require Fast-Food Companies The greatest benefit linked to the proposed laws is that the laws will enable the advertising companies to be more serious in the nature of advertisement that they release to the public. People across France and all over the world care for their health, and it would be advised for the advertising companies to add health messages to their products. Adding a health message to the products that they manufacture, the fast food industries will offer the advertisers a chance to devise on the most appropriate strategy of advertisement to apply, and consequently reach people with evidence-based and genuine message regarding the products. Food manufacturing organizations need to ensure that the products they release have nutritional value and the ingredients attached to the advertisement materials that they release to the public. Instead of paying the tax in their advertisement budget, McDonalds should add health messages to promote its products in a better and modernized way. McDonalds can get involved in promotion campaigns and support social events such as Olympics as a way of promoting the products it advertise, thereby reaching large population of people, especially the target group on the nutritional value of the fast-foods that they advertise. Ronald McDonalds should focus on differentiation of its products through integration of health message to the products that are under its name, as this will not only rebuild the reputation of Ronald McDonalds but will also promote the fast foods that they advertise. Question Three: Reasons why the Company should bother if there is no evidence that obesity rates fall in those Countries that Ban Food Advertising to Children Many health organizations in the developed countries feel that banning of the food advertising is the solution to obesity in children, but this is not the solution. They need to understand that even if these advertisements are banned, the manufacturing companies will still continue to produce fast foods with calories and fats. The fact that banning of food advertisement in a nation is not the solution to obesity in children suffices to show the need for the advertising organizations to come in as a way of restructuring and rebuilding their reputation in advertising fast foods. These organizations need to show the government that the problem is not the advertisements, but the users of the products that are advertised; children. It should be considered as the responsibility of the parents, teachers and other educators to advice children on the nature of foods that they need to consume and at what levels of fats and calories (Gable, Chang & Krull, 2007: 53-61). Children take relative little amount of time to learn, and once they are warned on some behaviors and eating character, they tend to respond quickly as compared to adults. This implies that creating awareness to children on the benefits and dangers linked to consumption of fast food is the only solution, and not banning the advertising agencies. Obesity is observed to be greatly contributed by consumption of fats and cholesterols, and is characterized by accumulation of fats leading to increased body mass index. Children like sweet and fatty foods which have cholesterols and high levels of fats, and due to lack of physical exercises, these fats are not converted to energy. As a result they accumulate in the body causing the children to increase in mass, hence developing the obesity condition (Lee, 2012: 1193-201). The manufacturing companies need to indicate in the packages the ingredients and levels of fats and cholesterols present in the foods that they sell to the children to enable the parents and guardians make choices for their children to prevent them from developing obesity. The rate of children obesity cannot fall rapidly because the process of reducing obesity in children starts with changing of the lifestyles of the parents, then to the lifestyle of the children. It is very hard for a parent who consumes a lot of fatty foods to convince the child that eating such foods is harmful to their health. It is the obligation of the older population to change their lifestyle as a way of helping the children changes their desire to fast foods that can cause obesity (Larson & Story, 2010: 430-5). Generally, the government, the manufacturing companies, the advertising agents, the parents and children have a great role to play in reduction of obesity in children because all these parties significantly stimulate production of the foods that contain fats and cholesterol. Question Four: The Problems facing McDonald’s and Solution Measures There are various problems that are facing McDonalds with respect to its performance in advertising fast food to children. According to the case presented regarding obesity in children, it can be argued that the sizes of the fast-food packages are the major problem in the sense that they are small to attract the attention of children, and hence elevating the rate at which children consume the products (Darmon & Drewnowski, 2008: 1107-10). Additionally, the advertising criteria that are employed can be considered to be one of the basic contributing factors to obesity in children, hence bad reputation of Ronald McDonald. Considering the solutions to these problems, campaigns that focus on addressing children regarding Ronald McDonald need to be launched with integration of animated fruits and vegetable character to show that the content of the products advertised under McDonald are cholesterol free and safe for children consumption. It was observed from a statement from McDonald’s Corp. that majority of nutritionist have the perception that McDonald is appropriate for balanced diets. The other solution of addressing the challenges facing McDonald Corp. is establishment of positive lifestyle messages in the advertisements that they make. These lifestyle messages are with inclusion of fostering the importance of physical exercise and the need to take balanced diets among others (Larson, N. & Story, M. 2009: 56-73). Such health messages are better than health warning such as excessive consumption of the product is harmful to the health, and will encourage children and adults taking the products to strategize on measures that improve body fitness. The fact that McDonald is working together with Disney’s line of cartoon characters suffices to argue that the image of the corporation is rebuilding and restructuring because the use of cartoon characters attracts children greatly (Eunice, 2014: npag). Working together with another animation organization boasts the performance of McDonald because as children enjoy adverts from Disney’s line, they capture the message passed by McDonalds regarding the food products that are nutritious to the children. Question Five: Short-Range and Long-Range Plan for McDonald’s to Implement Considering the long range plan for McDonald, the corporation needs to enhance its image and change the perception that people have regarding its operations. It should struggle to show the public the positive healthy side of McDonald as a way of retaining its funs and clients. On the other hand, as a short range plan, the corporation need to try differentiation of the products that it advertises through inclusion of healthy massages, recycling of food sacks as a way of showing its social responsibility and more importantly supporting charity programs (Dale, 2004: npag). Conclusion Obesity in children is a disorder that needs immediate attention because the consequences affect them throughout their growth and development. Obese children tend to be depressed and stigmatized due to their body shapes as compared to the normal children of the same age or gender. It is the obligation of the parents and guardians to guide children on the nature of foods and snacks that they need to consume to help them avoid developing obesity. The food manufacturing companies also need to have a wide understanding of the effects of high levels of cholesterol in the food that children consume. Lastly, the advertising organizations need to establish appropriate health messages to accompany the packages of the products that they advertise to encourage users on the need to participate in activities that trigger body fitness. References Dale, B. 2004. NEWS AND ANALYSIS; Is the Food Industry the Problem or the Solution? Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/business/news-and-analysis-is-the-food-industry-the-problem-or-the-solution.html [Accessed 10th September 2014] Darmon, N. & Drewnowski, A. 2008. Does social class predict diet quality? Am J Clin Nutr. (87):1107–17. Eunice, N. 2014. Fast Food and Obesity. Available at: http://weight-loss.emedtv.com/obesity/fast-food-and-obesity.html [Accessed 10th September 2014] Gable, S., Chang, Y. & Krull, J. L. 2007. Television watching and frequency of family meals are predictive of overweight onset and persistence in a national sample of school-aged children. J Am Diet Assoc. (107):53–61 Larson, N. & Story, M. 2009. A review of environmental influences on food choices. Ann Behav Med. (38):S56–73. Larson, N. & Story, M. 2010. Are ‘competitive foods’ sold at school making our children fat? Health Aff (Millwood). 29(3):430-5. Lee, H. 2012. The role of local food availability in explaining obesity risk among young school-aged children. Soc Sci Med. (74):1193-203. Sallis, J. F. & Glanz, K. 2009. Physical activity and food environments: solutions to the obesity epidemic. Milbank Q. (87):123–54. Swinburn, B., Egger, G. & Raza, F. 1999.Dissecting obesogenic environments: the development and application of a framework for identifying and prioritizing environmental interventions for obesity. Prev Med. (29):563–70. Read More