McDonald's gets a McD-minus for advertising on report cards

Advertising Age reports on McDonald's latest attempt to recruit a new generation:

The Golden Arches picked up the $1,600 cost of printing report-card jackets for the 2007-2008 school year in Seminole County, Fla., in exchange for a Happy Meal coupon on the card's cover. With 27,000 elementary school kids taking their report-card jackets home to be signed three or four times a year, that's less than 2 cents per impression.

The plan sounds like an unmitigatedly bad idea, but surprisingly, Pizza Hut has been doing the same thing for years, advertising on those same report card jackets with nary a peep. So why the outrage now? Sounds like it was the coupon...

"My daughter worked so hard to get good grades this term and now she believes she is entitled to a prize from McDonald's," Susan Pagan, an Orlando parent, said in a press release distributed by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. "And now I'm the bad guy because I had to explain that our family does not eat at fast-food chains."

Susan Pagan, what an awesome name! But my favorite quote in the article:

Michele Simon, author of "Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines our Health and How to Fight Back," said that the school district is "selling kids' health for chump change."

"They should be embarrassed," she said. "If you're going to sell out kids' health you might as well get something good for it."

Damn straight.

(Hat tip to Anne B.)