McDonald’s Corp. today voted down a proposal to assess its impact on public health, particularly childhood obesity.
The proposal was brought by consumer watchdog group Corporate Accountability International. It requested that McDonald’s board “issue a report, at reasonable expense and excluding proprietary information, within six months of the 2012 annual meeting, assessing the company’s policy responses to growing evidence of linkages between fast food and childhood obesity, diet-related diseases and other impacts on children’s health,” according to the McDonald’s proxy statement, which recommended shareholders vote against the proposal.
“McDonald’s can no longer ignore the spiraling costs of its business practices on our children’s health and on our health-care system,” said Andrew Bremer, a pediatric endocrinologist and professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University in a statement, who spoke on behalf of a shareholder, John Harrington. Dr. Bremer also spoke in support of the resolution at the annual meeting, saying that there’s a growing concern about how McDonald’s and chains of its ilk are contributing to obesity and diet-related disease. He added that by not changing marketing and the food it offers, shareholders are unreasonably exposed to risk, and the tactics are “doing the brand no favors.”
via McDonald’s Shareholders Defeat Obesity-Impact Proposal | News – Advertising Age.
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