If you ever wondered how much influence McDonald’s has on children exposed to a relentless stream of cunningly crafted television ads, you can stop wondering now.
(Source)
The New York Post reports David Schorr, a corporate attorney turned consultant with degrees from NYU and Oxford University, filed a defamation lawsuit against a court-appointed psychiatrist for telling the judge in a custody battle that he was an unfit parent for refusing to take his 4-year-old son to McDonald’s for dinner.
“You’d think it was sexual molestation,” Schorr, 43, told The Post. “I am just floored by it.”
Schorr says psychiatrist Marilyn Schiller filed a report saying he was “wholly incapable of taking care of his son” and should be denied his weekend visitation over his McDonald’s refusal.
Schorr had planned to take his 4-year-old son to their usual restaurant, the Corner Café on Third Avenue, for his weekly Tuesday night visitation.
But his son threw a temper tantrum and demanded McDonald’s. So he told his son they could have dinner anywhere other than McDonald’s, or no dinner at all.
“The child, stubborn as a mule, chose the ‘no dinner’ option,” Schorr says in the suit. “It was just a standoff. I’m kicking myself mightily,” Schorr said.
“I wish I had taken him to McDonalds, but you get nervous about rewarding bad behavior. I was concerned. I think it was a 1950s equivalent of sending your child to bed without dinner. That’s maybe the worst thing you can say about it,” he said.
Schorr added that after his visitation, his wife then immediately took their son to McDonalds.
“The first thing I did was I questioned myself,” he recalled. “Had I done something wrong? I did what any 43-year-old Jewish man would do — I told my mother. I said, ‘My God, did I do something wrong here?’
“Even my mother, the strictest mother in the world, said, ‘Why didn’t you just take him to McDonalds? What were you thinking? You know that this is a divorce situation.’”
Yahoo Shine’s Beth Greenfield claims Schiller told a judge that because of the incident the father’s weekend visits with his son should be limited or eliminated entirely.
In a video posted on Yahoo, the father, David Schorr speaks of his regrets and asks, “How does someone exercise parental authority during a divorce?”
Kenneth Neumann, a New York divorce mediator and psychologist with the Center for Mediation & Training tells Yahoo Shine:
“The idea is that parental authority should continue during any process. But the notion that you’re under a microscope is true. So often you wind up being extra careful to a fault, particularly when you’re afraid of being reported for abuse.”
Neumann notes that for Schiller to call the father “wholly incapable” seems extreme based on this incident alone. “There must be more to the story,” he says, adding, “Boy, this is a messy case.”
Aside from the questionable tactic of the father giving his 4-year-old son a dinner ultimatum, consider how much “pull” McDonald’s has on the formative mind of a preschooler for the boy to throw a tantrum.
Yes children of that age typically throw tantrums when they don’t get what they want, but there’s no denying that the millions McDonald’s spends each year on ads, along with the creation of benevolent figures like Ronald McDonald, has had a powerful influence on luring children to eat McDonald’s worthless, fat laden junk food.
McDonald’s Could Care Less
McDonald’s and its investors could care less if their junk food contributes to childhood obesity and previously rejected a proposal that would have required the fast-food chain to assess its impact on the problem.
Dr Andrew Bremer, a pediatric endocrinologist and professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, presented the proposal at an annual McDonald’s shareholder meeting.
(Source)
Bremer said McDonald’s has chosen to employ countless new PR tactics that create a perception of change while unreasonably exposing shareholders to significant risk.
“It is not enough to point to so-called healthier menu items when children are still the target of aggressive marketing of an overwhelming unhealthy brand,” Bremer said.
That McDonald’s core selling items of fatty foods and sugary drinks contributes to America’s obesity nightmare, where nearly one-third of U.S. children are overweight, is summarily dismissed by McDonald’s executives who defend the brand and its advertising.
Inquisitive foodie with a professional investigative background and strong belief in the organic farm to table movement. Author of Bad Seeds: A FriendsEAT Guide to GMO's.
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