Ronald McDonald slaps first graders hands as they head to lunch at Charles Gates Dawes Elementary School in 2008. Ronald McDonald was at the school to launch of the new Ronald McDonald Care Mobile\, a pediatric mobile health care vehicle. (Chicago Tribune Photo by Heather Stone)
By Julie Wernau
| A coalition of health professionals, parents and corporate
accountability advocates is calling for Ronald McDonald to retire as a spokesman for the nation’s largest restaurant chain, saying he has too much influence on kids.
Corporate Accountability International, which has waged campaigns against bottled water companies and tobacco companies, said it plans to present the results of a survey Wednesday showing that most Americans agree.
The group will release the results at a lunch-time “retirement party” for Oak Brook-based
McDonald’s Chief Happiness Officer, a 50-year veteran of the company, at the McDonald’s restaurant at Chicago Avenue and State Street in Chicago.
