The No 1 fast food company, McDonald’s, “has quietly pulled the link” on the Internet to a 20-minute film, “540 Meals: Choices Make a Difference,” that was being promoted for nutrition education classes in middle and high schools, says the blog The Lunch Tray. The author of the blog, Bettina Siegel, says the film features “features McDonald’s paid brand ambassador John Cisna, an Iowa science teacher who lost weight eating McDonald’s for 90 days” and “is little more than an infomercial…It also contains an express instruction to children that they should ignore any negative information about fast food or McDonald’s that they may encounter on the Internet.”
Siegel wrote about “540 Meals” on Monday and several media outlets picked up the story. In her blog, devoted to children and food policy, Siegel says McDonald’s refused to discuss the film with her. The in-school marketing program was launched earlier this year without a news release, she said, and it is being promoted to schools by local franchise holders and by McDonald’s “nutrition consultants.”
A McDonald’s spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.