Global Policy Forum

Michele Landsberg

This column couldn't have and wouldn't have been written three days ago. To raise any questions about UNICEF policies just before Halloween is, in effect, to help steal life and breath from millions of developing world children who depend on that U.N. agency for their survival. Furthermore, I'd hate to be associated in any way, however remote, with a certain faction of extreme-right fundamentalists. Every year, a handful of these unbalanced religious fanatics try to undermine UNICEF's Trick or Treat fundraising drive by spreading preposterous lies about UNICEF through the right-wing media. Funny how people who claim to worship pre-natal life forms can recklessly throw away the lives of so many sick or starving babies in other countries by falsely attacking the one agency created to help the world's children.

So, as an ardent supporter of UNICEF's work, I've waited a couple of weeks to ask: What on earth is UNICEF doing in joining hands with McDonald's, the world's biggest purveyor of junk food?

Last summer, McDonald's and UNICEF announced a Happy Deal "partnership" in which Mickey D would distribute 20 million Trick or Treat boxes through its U.S. outlets. There was even talk of a monster concert in China to be broadcast online on Nov. 20, World Children's Day — now revoltingly, to be re-named McDonald's World Children's Day. (The day commemorates a noble event, the 1989 adoption of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child). Access to the concert would have been available only to those who bought a Big Mac on that special day.

It's clear what's in this deal for McDonald's. Ever since the best-selling book Fast Food Nation, many people have felt queasy at the thought of chowing down on a steroid and antibiotic-laced hunk of minced beef, possibly also containing feces and viruses. The World Health Organization — another U.N. agency, has issued a grave warning about a worldwide epidemic of childhood obesity. In a report last April, the WHO encouraged restrictions on marketing junk food to children, cautioning that "high fat and high sugar" fast foods are among the obesity culprits.

Fears of mad cow disease swept Europe at the same time as a survey showed that McDonald's was the single largest advertiser to children. Many European organizations are pushing for a ban on all advertising to kids — and as McDonald's founder Ray Kroc once admitted, "marketing" is as important to McDonald's success as the hamburger itself. Devastatingly, even the British judge who ruled in McDonald's favour in the famous "McLibel" case conceded that the defendants were completely right in accusing McDonald's of "exploiting children" through its advertising.On top of all these setbacks, McDonald's revenues have slumped in seven of eight recent quarters.

McD's must be desperate for an image-cleansing shower of good publicity. And what could possibly be more Goody Two-Shoes than cozying up to UNICEF, the best-loved, most-admired and most effective of all the U.N. agencies? To understand what's in it for UNICEF, however, takes a bit more explaining.

UNICEF depends entirely on voluntary donations. It gets not a cent from the United Nations. Much of the money it needs is raised by the "national committees" which are actually independent charities in each country. The push to link up with McDonald's probably originated —as did another UNICEF link with Coca-Cola — with the U.S. national committee, the oldest, biggest and most influential of them all. (I should point out that Canadian UNICEF is not participating in the McDonald's partnership).

In a time when most nations are scaling back their contributions to U.N. work, and when the double spectre of AIDS and famine stalks the developing world, the pressure is on UNICEF to increase its revenues. There are many corporate partnerships, much as I loathe the term, that would pass the toughest scrutiny.

But dancing cheek-to-cheek with Ronald McDonald may prove to be just too unsavoury a coupling for most observers. Already, since the announcement was made in July, leading public health experts and activists, from Harvard Medical School to the Australian parliament, have protested to UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy. A petition signed by more than 50 health professional and child advocates expressed astonishment and dismay that UNICEF would join with "a corporation that is known for aggressive promotion of foods that contribute to ill health and poor nutrition."

Britain's Guardian newspaper ran a critical story and quoted experts who wondered whether UNICEF had utterly sacrificed its credibility. Now the current issue of the British Medical Journal has drawn attention to the controversy. Among the horrified comments it cited was one from Baby Milk Action, a leading campaigner against the irresponsible marketing of infant formula in the developing world. Breast-feeding advocates have long been staunch allies of UNICEF, which was a powerful force in the long campaign to stop infant deaths from formula.

Baby Milk Action could hardly believe that UNICEF was linking up with McDonald's. The same month this bizarre "partnership" was announced, a truly disgusting billboard campaign spread across Austria. The billboards were ads for McDonald's. One showed a baby suckling happily on a giant hamburger bun, pimpled with sesame seeds and strategically placed to look like a breast. On the side of the baby's face were emblazoned McDonald's trademark golden arches. The other billboard positioned two buns to represent breasts, with the slogan "Big Macs."

UNICEF has refused to back down from its new and possibly lucrative partnerships, but already there are hints that it may "reconsider" the arrangement at the end of the year.

I sincerely hope it does. I've already started saving my loonies for next Halloween. Individual efforts are important — Canadian children raise $1 million every Halloween, enough to help send one million Afghan children back to school with pencils and books. If enough countries contributed their fair share to the vital work done by UNICEF, the agency wouldn't have to smear its own reputation with grease from a fast food grill.