The fight against childhood obesity is a global one, and McDonald's is being reminded of that fact by a surprising fine by a Brazilian consumer-protection agency over the chain's promotion of its Happy Meals.

It seems that Procon, an agency in Sao Paolo, didn't appreciate McDonald's 2010 promotion of Happy Meals that leveraged toys from the movie Avatar as well as a local television series, according to a lawyer for Procon who talked with Reuters. "This is not an isolated case," he told the news service. "There's no need to appeal as they do to children without the maturity or rationality to enter the market as consumers."

The lawyer, of course, forgot to mention "parents," who are supposed to provide the "maturity" and "rationality" to supervise their children. But such trivialities haven't made much of a difference in do-gooders' global attacks on McDonald's for offering food that parents want to buy for their children, including Happy Meals.Continue reading...

Bowing to fierce opposition from the food, beverage, quick-serve-restaurant and advertising industries, the Obama administration has backed off huge portions of its proposed "voluntary" new restrictions on marketing to children. But while gratified, industry representatives aren't satisfied with half a loaf.

At this point, now, no longer are "brand equity" figures such as Ronald McDonald and SpongeBob SquarePants endangered even if they represent junk food. The federal government's Interagency Working Group (IWG) -- comprised of representatives from four major regulatory bodies -- also decided to drop the idea of tightening standards for most marketing to 12- to 17-year-olds, and will instead continue the government's traditional focus on 2- to 11-year-olds. And the feds want to back off in other ways as well.

"The anticipated revisions go a long way to address the industry's concerns," David Vladeck, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in the working group's testimony today before a House subcommittee. Continue reading...

A former employee at Toronto's Whole Foods may think the place is a "faux hippy Wal-Mart," as he mentioned in his extremely nasty, mass-emailed, 2,000-word resignation letter to all of the store’s thousands of employees, but that’s not stopping the company from fostering its wholesome image and starting up a charitable organization.

The Associated Press reports that the organic grocer's newly established philanthropic arm, the Whole Kids Foundation, “aims to provide children with access to healthy foods.” The plan is to “work with schools, educators, and other organizations to help improve children's food choices,” the report adds.

With a mission to "support schools and inspire families to improve children's nutrition," the first project the foundation will engage in is to follow in the footsteps of First Lady Michelle Obama and support teaching gardens this fall, so that kids can get a better sense of the food they eat by taking part in the growing process.Continue reading...