5,000 signatures reached
To: Alistair Macrow, CEO of McDonald's UK
McDonald’s - Stop Targeting Junk Food Ads at Young People
Big food companies are spending millions every year on junk food advertising targeting children - and new research has found it's getting worse.
McDonald’s, you are a serial offender - with more billboards than other fast food brands and a marketing strategy focused on targeting poorer neighbourhoods and young people especially.
So, McDonald's, will you commit to stop advertising junk food to children?
McDonald’s, you are a serial offender - with more billboards than other fast food brands and a marketing strategy focused on targeting poorer neighbourhoods and young people especially.
So, McDonald's, will you commit to stop advertising junk food to children?
Why is this important?
I’m 17 years old. I look around the streets where I live and junk food is always in the spotlight. When I walk to school, get on the bus, wait at a station, or just spend time in the town centre, I am surrounded by adverts. It’s become the cultural wall paper, and it’s endangering the health of a generation. 1 in 3 children are leaving primary school at future risk of food related health problems, because of food that is being manufactured and heavily marketed by giant companies like McDonald’s.
Later this month, the people in charge of McDonald's have their big once a year meeting. The Chief Executive and other bosses have to answer questions from the people that own the company, and I’m going to be there too - David taking on Goliath! I will look them in the eye and ask them to stop advertising their junk food to children. Can I say I've got your backing too?
We know holding big companies to account at these kinds of meetings can change how they do things - together we can force McDonald's to put their marketing might behind their healthy options instead.
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References:
[1] New research has revealed companies are ramping up their marketing spend, increasing how much money they spend promoting their products by a staggering £426 million in the last year. See: www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/12/big-brands-send-out-barrage-of-junk-food-ads-before-obesity-rules-bite
[2] More billboards: field research in 4 local authority areas found McDonald’s was the most frequent advertiser representing 31% of all food and drink adverts. See: https://cdn.bitebackmedia.com/media/documents/Bite_Back_Report_Fuel_Us_Dont_Fool_Us_Advertising.pdf
[3] Targeting deprived areas: McDonald’s adverts were more likely to be found in the most deprived areas in each location – on average, across the four locations, the rate of McDonald’s adverts captured per km cycled was 9 times greater in the most deprived areas, compared to the least (1.08 ads/km to 0.12 ads/km). See: https://cdn.bitebackmedia.com/media/documents/Bite_Back_Report_Fuel_Us_Dont_Fool_Us_Advertising.pdf
[4] See for example: https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/news/junk-food-ads-flood-children2019s-social-media-feeds-new-study-finds
