Just wanted to post this about my favorite creepy clown/huckster/avatar:
Link
Posted on Fri, May. 21, 2010
No retirement for Ronald
Associated Press
CHICAGO - Retire Ronald McDonald? No way.
That's the message McDonald's Corp.'s CEO, Jim Skinner gave, yesterday to the red-haired clown's critics who say the cartoon promotes unhealthy eating and should go the way of the Marlboro Man and Joe Camel.
"The answer is no," Skinner told a room full of shareholders who gathered for a meeting at the company's headquarters in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook, Ill.
"He is a force for good," Skinner said, adding that the nearly 50-year-old clown is an ambassador for the McDonald's brand and its Ronald McDonald House Charities. "He communicates effectively with children and families around balanced, active lifestyles. He does not hawk food."
Shareholders applauded Skinner. And they unleashed a chorus of boos when representatives from the advocacy group Corporate Accountability International requested the famous icon be shelved - for good.
"Ronald McDonald is a pied piper drawing youngsters all over the world to food that is high in fat, sodium and calories," said Alfred David Klinger, a retired Chicago physician who volunteers with the organization. " . . . Ronald McDonald is dangerous, sending insidious messages to young people."
