Minnesota Institute of Public Health

A recent item in the news is a developing bruhaha over Ronald McDonald and whether he should retire. The hamburger clown icon is fifty years old now, and advocacy groups against fast junk food are laying into him.  Recently at a McDonalds stockholder meeting near Chicago, the McDonalds empire leadership announced they intend to keep Ronald around as their spokesclown.

Advocates against this plan insist that Ronald hawks crummy high-fat, low nutritious food to kids and families and that he is "the pied piper of leading kids to bad food, high in calories, sodium, and fat." They believe Ronald should go the way of the Marlboro Man and Joe Camel.

McDonalds muckety-mucks insist Ronald communicates effectively with kids about active lifestyles and a balanced life.

Since both sides of this debate agree that Ronald communicates very effectively, why not think about this option: Ronald mixes in a salad once in a while, with increasing frequency, and communicates why. Surely McDonalds can make serious money selling salads and nutritious food as well as less healthy offerings. Since the movement to healthier eating is nested in individual choice, let's have the great hamburger communicator role model healthy choices in his own behavior change. Isn't that what the movement toward wise food choices, active lifestyles, and improved health is about? Hamburgers and fries are sometimes food, salads are everyday food.

It's these healthy compromises that are more likely to re-direct behavior. Much like a really fair court ruling, if neither the plaintiff nor the defendant is completely happy with the decision, it may be because it's closer to the truth, which is usually found in the middle.

-JJ