For Immediate Release
March 13, 2005
Latest Management Death at McDonald’s Corporation Underscores Irony in Marketing of Lethal Product
Chicago- Former McDonald’s Corporation president and chief executive Charles Bell died January 16 th of colon cancer, widely known to be associated with a meat-based diet. He had stepped down as the company’s manager in November to battle the disease.
Bell’s predecessor, James Cantalupo, had previously dropped dead of a heart attack on April 15 th , 2004 while attending a convention of worldwide McDonald’s franchisees in Orlando, Florida. Food sold at McDonald’s is high in fat and cholesterol, and known to cause heart disease, strokes and other forms of cancer. There has been no word from the company as to whether current and future company managers will be required to abstain from eating in their own restaurants.
McDonald’s has been designated by health and animal rights activists as a poster-company for the fast food, meat and dairy industries, which are responsible for many if not most of the premature deaths in America and other so-called “developed” countries. This same industry also causes massive and unimaginable animal cruelty, as well as participating in environmentally destructive practices and anti-union efforts.
Activists unable to compete with advertising campaigns costing hundreds of millions of dollars have turned to symbolic actions such as arson and vandalism that direct public attention to the unethical business practices of giant corporations like McDonald’s that prey on the public’s gullibility to their advertising.
More information is available at http://www.mcspotlight.org/.