Local Dad, and No Maccas in the Hills campaigner, Glenn Stephenson has created the following petition, with the help of the folks at Change.org, calling on Basketball Victoria to drop McDonald’s sponsorship of their Hoop Time program.
In less than a month the petition is now over 2,000 signatures strong, and makes a powerful statement that junk food sponsorship of children’s sporting programs is not on.
A message from Glenn:
“As the parent of a student at our local primary school, I am thrilled that my child has the opportunity to play basketball with her school mates in the ‘Hoop Time’ basketball program. I do, however, strongly disagree with where the current sponsorship for the program is coming from.
The McDonalds Corporation has been proven to use aggressive marketing tactics aimed at children through television and radio commercials, packaging of products used by children in the home and the use of a clown and toys with their ‘Happy Meals’. And most recently they’re trying to build a store opposite our kindergarten and primary school in Tecoma. There is clearly a pattern of targeting children.
I must protest at the fact that they use healthy children’s activities, such as basketball, to promote their extremely unhealthy products. I find this practice completely abhorrent.
As a concerned father, I strongly suggest that Basketball Victoria seek alternate sources of sponsorship more in line with what the ‘Hoop Time’ basketball program seeks to promote- a healthy lifestyle for children, everything that McDonalds does not.”
