McDonalds – is it a great restaurant chain serving tasty food, or the purveyor of a socially destructive obesity pandemic? Well that really depends on your point of view. However what we do know is that human opinions are reflective of the current moods of society. We see that all the time in areas such as fashion and retail. The success of the Apple iPhone took on a life of its own with people believing the iPhone was the must have device, despite the HTC getting near universal better reviews and ratings. People’s opinions about the iPhone had become self reinforcing through word of mouth.
Examples!
In Peru, Chevron is fighting for oil against the indigenous population. The government of Peru supports Chevron because it wants the oil from Chevron. At the same time, the government supports the police and blames the indigenous people for the deaths of the police. The indigenous people are simply fighting for their own land. Chevron, while bringing in huge profits for its shareholders, significantly harms both the earth and the people living on it in Peru. Still Chevron has a CSR program.
In Thailand, Chevron launched a long-term CSR project to encourage students to develop their schools in an environmentally responsible manner, which would boost student awareness of environmental issues. Chevron cooperates with Chulalongkorn University to develop a master's-degree program in petroleum geology by providing $10,000,000.00 over the next five years. Although this is termed CSR, the reality is that the program is to provide Thai experts for Chevron.
The Ronald McDonald CSR image is positive, but we know that the beef that we eat is destroying the rainforest. Rainforests cover approximately 6 percent of the earth's surface. McDonalds is the largest seller of beef. Large parts of Central American rainforests have been decimated for cattle ranching and sugar cane. McDonalds clears trees in the rainforest so that their beef will have grazing land. You know already that we need the rainforest to prevent global warming.
The intent here is not to vilify McDonalds. It is not the only corporation destroying our environment. We look at McDonalds because it has the most visible CSR image: Ronald McDonald. We notice the contradiction in what McDonalds does, McDonald the destroyer, and Ronald McDonald, the caretaker for families of sick children.

When I read an article such as this, I ask myself what can I do? If you are asking yourself the same question, and you may or may not be, you might already have ideas for what you can do. Listed below are our nine suggestions:
1. Avoid eating at McDonalds
2. Ask your friends not to eat at McDonalds
3. Eat less meat
4. Educate yourself about the rainforests
5. Know that McDonald employees are not unionized
6. Educate yourself about unions
7. Question advertisements
8. Question CSR programs
9. Become a knowledgeable and engaged consumer and citizen
Below debate for understanding Kalai thanks
I think what we should talk about is personal responsibility. People need to take their own lives and the lives of their children into their own hands, and stop expecting the government, corporations, doctors or other people to take care of them. The information is there. We all know that eating McDonald’s is bad, smoking is bad, etc. People need to stop eating, exercise and stay away from other harmful substances, and teach their children these things! We all need to take more responsibility for our own lives and stop expecting others to do these things for us. It is not McDonald’s who makes us fat- we have a choice! Okay, I’m done.

Stacey,
Thanks for the comment. I agree that ultimately, people need to take responsibility for themselves. However, since this blog is about marketing and corporate social responsibility, my question is whether or not the marketing that McDonalds does might have a negative effect on people’s attitudes toward nutrition. I especially wonder what effect that marketing has on children. Whether it is television or print ads or billboards or whatever, it is hard, if not impossible, to prevent those messages from reaching children. In regards to social responsibility, my concern is that McDonalds is being less than responsible by trying to market themselves as socially responsible when the marketing that they conduct encourages people to make less than healthy choices

Well, I would have to agree that it is impossible to avoid those messages, I am having a “Mac Attack” just talking about McDonald’s. I would ask, then, just what messages are they sending children? I don’t currenly watch television, but when I did, I saw McDonald’s encouraging children to be more active. They have even started to change the sack for the Happy Meals to show games and activities you can do to be healthy. And, they put the nutrition information right on the side of the box. That, along with the new side choices such as apple wedges and milk, make feeding your child McDonald’s at least as nutritious as a school prepared lunch. They also cook in no trans fat cooking oil and have salads and grilled choices. They have switched a lot of their marketing to target college-aged people with the dollar menu ads, and they limit the advertising of the third party promotionals in the kid’s meals (aka happy meal toys). I know they are an easy target, and their attempts to be socially responsible may be somewhat superficial, but I think they are making great strides.

For example, we're always looking for ways to reduce, reuse and recycle in our restaurants and across our whole business.
We use low energy light bulbs, energy saving equipment and waterless urinals, and recycle used cooking oil into biodiesel to fuel more than half of our delivery trucks.
We also recycle the cardboard boxes used in more than 90% of our restaurants, and 80% of our packaging is made from renewable resources.
We are the FA's Community Partner. This means we work with local football clubs, schools, youth teams and junior leagues around the UK.
Our programme gives people the chance to volunteer and qualify as a football coach so they can give free, high-quality coaching to young people across the country.
We also organise daily litter patrols and work with environmental charities Keep Britain Tidy , Keep Wales Tidy , Keep Scotland Beautiful and Tidy Northern Ireland.
Most of our charity work is focused on supporting Ronald McDonald House Charities, an independent charity supported by McDonald's.
Ronald McDonald House Charities provides a ‘home away from home' for families with children undergoing treatment in hospital. The Charity relies on voluntary donations, and you can find collection boxes in every single one of our restaurants.
We also invest over £300 million a year in the UK agricultural industry. The majority of our ingredients come from Britain and Ireland, with more than 17,500 British and Irish farmers providing us with ingredients such as beef, pork, free-range eggs, organic milk and potatoes.