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Mixed Messages For Children
At the same time LC were linking up with McDonalds,
Coca Cola and Nestlé, as reported on the website of the Leisure Management Contractors Association
in the Oct/Nov/Dec 2006
Newsletter. Is anyone
reminded of Orwell's 1984 when reading it?. Leading
leisure management company teams up with McDonalds (reproduced
in full) Leisure Connection have teamed up with McDonalds to promote a fabulous kids swim free offer across their leisure centres. The offer is presented to parents in the form of ‘treat cards’ handed out with kids Happy Meals at any McDonalds nationwide. The ‘treat cards’ can then be handed over to the nearest participating Leisure Connection centre with a pool and a child swims free, when an accompanied by a full paying adult. Working in partnership with Local Authorities and national sports agencies such as Sport England and the British Wheelchair Sports Foundation, Leisure Connection manages approximately 100 centres and 91 with pools. Leisure Connection’s SwimSchool teaches 42,000 children to swim every week and weekly, the centres have approximately 50,000 visitors! The incentive is on offer between July and September and links with the latest McDonalds scheme to keep kids active. McDonalds recommends everyone should exercise for 30 minutes after eating in addition to eating healthier. McDonalds have been promoting a healthier lifestyle in their eateries for months with new ranges including fruit, sandwiches, drinks and salads. This partnership scheme provides a result for both parties in the form of awareness for Leisure Connection and fitness support for McDonalds. Other third party promotions who have teamed up with Leisure Connection with the Kids Swim Free offer is Coca cola, Nestle and the Early Learning Centre, who all support vouchers to be redeemed at the nearest Leisure Connection centre with a pool. Stephen Powell, Leisure Connection’s Marcomms Manager initiated and developed the campaign “It has been a wonderful opportunity to team up with the leading fast food distributor. We recognised the opportunity to promote our offer when their campaign for healthier eating and regular exercise was first introduced. We hope it will be the first of many promotions from two leaders in their industry to reach one common goal – to make kids healthier.”Happy Meals and The Fast Food Industry's Desire to Get into Bed with Sport & Leisure "We used the (McDonald's website to analyse a typical Happy Meal - 4 Chicken McNuggets, regular French Fries and a regular soft drink - and found that the meal contains 19g of fat, 27g of sugar but only 15g of protein. Happy meals may contain more fat than protein." Undated - from http://www.foodcomm.org.uk/parentsjury/pester_power.htm From Which? 1/5/05 "Promoting a healthy, active lifestyle enables fast-food chains to continue serving unhealthy food... Linking less healthy food with sport or sporting heroes is a favourite ploy of the food industry." Kath Dalmeny, from the Food Commission watchdog, said: "..."But our concern is that food companies are diverting all the attention on to physical exercise when they should be doing more to tackle the energy contents of their products. It will be interesting to see whether or not these companies state on the packet how many steps you need to take to burn off the calories in what you've just eaten. To burn off a Big Mac, large fries, large cola and McFlurry ice cream with Smarties (1,458 calories) would need a walk lasting five hours, 42 minutes. It would take nearly two hours walking to burn off a crispy chicken ranch salad with dressing (501 cals), and an hour to burn up a plain grilled chicken Caesar salad without dressing (222 cals)." From Parliamentary Health Committee - Third Report - Obesity 10.5.04 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmhealth/23/2305.htm "There is no nutritional information relating specifically to the calorific content of Happy Meals on the McDonald's UK website, but by adding the calorific content of different components, a Happy Meal with a cheeseburger and a regular coke can be shown to contain 613 calories, which could represent nearly half the daily caloric need of a six year old girl, and over half that of a three year old girl." |
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