The Frontlines of the Food Culture War: McDonald's

Now that President Obama has signed the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act into law and the Food Safety Bill is moving through the system, the American Food Culture War has gotten serious, and it's being fought at McDonald's. Lawsuits! Line drawn in the sand! Name-calling! Friots are just a publicly-funded salad bar away, people.

First, to Houston, home of one of the nation's highest obesity rates, where local networks have refused to air a controversial anti-McDonald's ad from the nonprofit vegan group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The ad, which depicts a dead man in a morgue holding a cheeseburger and riffs on McDonald's slogan by ending with "I was loving it," was turned down by one station because it did not meet "standards and practices." McDonald's has called the ad "misleading."

Next, the folks behind the X-treme Eating Award are suing McDonald's for deceiving children with their evil Happy Meal toys. In a statement, the group said, "Children 8 years old and younger do not have the cognitive skills and the developmental maturity to understand the persuasive intent of marketing and advertising." Which, sure, fine, but don't they have parents?

· Food, Obesity, and Regulation: Simmering Culture War Boils Over [ABC]
· Houston TV Stations Refuse Ad That Slams Fast Food [Houston Chron]
· Food Police Sue McDonald’s Over Kids Meals [Chicago Breaking Business]
· The New Fronts of the American Food Culture War [-E-]
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