McDonald’s in trouble for promoting junk food at children’s sporting event
Fast food chain McDonald’s has been reprimanded by Ad Standards for promoting a $5 ‘Man of the Match’ McDonald’s voucher at a children’s soccer event.
A disgruntled parent complained to Ad Standards about the occurrence stating the promotion was “unacceptable” and McDonald’s should not advertise to children.
McDonald’s has been reprimanded for advertising to children
“It is hard enough to promote a healthy lifestyle to children in this environment, I don’t appreciate junk food being given to them as an award during a sporting activity. This encourages bad lifestyle choices of eating junk food following sporting activity and goes against everything I teach my children,” the complaint noted.
The complaint pointed out the voucher had an image of milk and a wrap on it, but was in fact for any McDonald’s meal.
McDonald’s said the food items on the voucher are in line with nutrition criteria and children cannot redeem the voucher without a parent or guardian.
The fast food giant also noted the voucher in question was not passed through its internal review and approval process.
Ad Standards upheld the complaint because it was a voucher which was given to children at a sporting event and “the voucher itself was not restricted to these products and could be used for a product that does not meet the nutritional criteria”.
McDonald’s said it was “disappointed” and it will make sure vouchers are no longer distributed at children’s matches.
Abigail Dawson was Mumbrella's senior content journalist covering event content. She left Mumbrella to move into an agency role in 2020.
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Ad Standards: doing the parenting for parents who can’t be bothered to do it themselves
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Hang on a second. I was handing out these certificates to kids as a team manager after games almost 2 decades ago. A small, tangible (and yes edible) acknowledgement for kids who were the best on the day, tried the hardest or just showed some team spirit. Parents remained the gatekeepers to what the kids bought. And suddenly the ASB calls offside? I’m hardly Robert Koltai (search the archives), but seriously?
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Yes Simon, I remember the awards that had the ‘complimentary cheeseburger’ voucher on the bottom, which was a nice excuse for mum to take us to McDonalds (which was a rarity when i was a kid). And isn’t Little Athletics sponsored my McDonalds?
Just funny to see this really.
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It really is getting ridiculous! I too received a few of these vouchers way back in the day – it was a well earned treat.
If we keep pushing away supporters of sports / activity based events, as a society that is focused on pandering to parents who can’t parent – we will end up without any support. Granted, Maccas are ‘still’ using these vouchers to create more custom, but isn’t that the core idea of supporting these types of events – aka sponsorship?
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As if it isn’t hard enough to get sponsors for community programs, now those sponsors are being dictated to that they aren’t good enough? The Maccas award is an institution…. if a kid hasn’t worked off a cheeseburger after 2 hours of running around then they never will. Coaches share these around too so every kid will only ever get 1 a season.
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Ridiculous! 100% agree with Fruitman.
Am I right to assume that just one complaint (one person) will now take thousands of dollars out of grassroots sport support? – not just from McDonald’s.
There are plenty of local fast food businesses providing generous support to grassroots sport across the country and provide similar awards – and have done so for decades!
What voice do the other 11.6 million people that play organised sport in Australia have on the matter?
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I feel sorry for the poor little tacker that win the award because of their ‘disgruntled’ parent. Kids deserve better.
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