Shareholders Confront McDonald’s 'McTeacher's Nights' Inside Their Annual Meeting
Shareholders Confront McDonald’s ‘McTeacher’s Nights’ Inside Their Annual Meeting
Alternet
Michael Arria
On May 26, a number of McDonald’s shareholders directly challenged top executives at the fast-food franchise’s annual meeting in Illinois. The action, which is part of a wider movement targeting the company, specifically cited McDonald’s marketing and lobbying practices for criticism.
Jennifer McDowell, a special-ed teacher and mother of three, explained to AlterNet how she gave her statement in partnership with area parent Mark Noltner, who McDonald’s effectively shut out of the meeting. McDowell summarized Nolter’s concerns to the company:
Last year, Mark’s daughter brought home a flyer advertising a McTeacher’s Night in her school…In his words: It really saddened me that McDonald’s had stooped so low that they needed to exploit the relationship between a teacher and a student in order to gain a marketing foothold on such young consumers. This is clearly an example of McDonald’s disguising marketing as a “fundraiser.”
Responding directly to McDowell’s comments, McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook sidestepped Nolter’s concerns about corporations permeating his daughter’s education and focused and insisted there was a valuable financial benefit to such partnerships.