Charles Ramsey in a television appearance.

We’d been waiting for word on the deal/offer/partnership thing that would come of the McDonald’s tweet to Cleveland hero Charles Ramsey. Now we know: Ramsey isn’t interested in any of the burger rewards that have been tossed his way since his story came to light. Very interesting.

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer reports that Ramsey has made a statement, via his lawyer, saying that he would prefer if attention would be paid to the needs of the victims, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, Michelle Knight, and Berry’s young daughter. And apparently there’s been a disgusting online game created in which Ramsey and Ariel Castro, the man accused of holding the women hostage, throw burgers at each other.

“I want everyone to know that I have nothing to do with this trash,” the statement says.

As a result of his comments, the restaurant that named a burger after Ramsey, Hodge’s (which was also where Ramsey worked as a dishwasher), has taken the burger off of the menu.

“The Ramsey burger was named to honor an employee at a time he indicated he would be returning to his job at Hodge’s. It was not developed to generate additional revenue for the restaurant — nor has it,” co-owner Scott Kuhn said in a statement.

The Christian Science Monitor notes that McDonald’s has donated $10,000 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the names of Ramsey and the victims and says Ramsey turned down a free burger offer from that chain as well.

That article also notes a couple of things about the steps Ramsey has taken. First he is “taking control of his image, by hiring a lawyer and sidestepping opportunities that make him appear to be getting a free lunch out of the harrowing ordeal of the three women imprisoned next door. His lawyer, Patricia Walker, told the Plain Dealer than Ramsey hired her in an effort to protect his intellectual property rights and gain control over his likeness and voice.”

Also, he’s consistently turned attention back to the victims. Which is, once again, the right thing to do.

But if he’s protecting his intellectual property, it also means he plans to do something with it. So he’s got much bigger plans than free burgers.

McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson. Image: Kerstin Joensson/AP Images for McDonald’s

McDonald’s held its annual shareholders meeting yesterday and was met with harsh criticism from a few different sides. It’s not a new charge, but some in attendance have a problem with the restaurant chain’s marketing, alleging that it targets minorities and children. One organization, Corporate Accountability International (CAI), went so far as to, once again, suggest that McDonald’s take a closer look at its impact on public health.

“The way you describe us is not who we are,” Ad Age quotes CEO Don Thompson.

One woman, Michelle Dyre, an African-American woman who described herself as a millennial and a former intern with CAI, really called out McD’s.

“Children of color are already more likely to live in environments where healthy food is less available. That they are more likely to develop diet-related diseases than their white counterparts should be no surprise considering how McDonald’s overwhelmingly targets them with predatory marketing,” she said.

Thompson, who is clearly also black, responded pointedly. “I grew up in the neighborhood,” noting his own low-income upbringing, which made even McDonald’s cost-prohibitive. “[T]he epidemic of obesity is not about McDonald’s.” He went on to highlight healthy options on the chain’s menu and reminded the audience that Ronald McDonald has not been in the company’s ads for a while.

Another critic was nine-year-old Hannah Robertson, whose mother is a food activist. “I don’t think it’s fair when big companies try to trick kids into eating food. It isn’t fair that so many kids my age are getting sick,” USA Today quotes her saying.

“We don’t sell junk food,” Thompson responded. “My kids also eat McDonald’s.”

Do you think McDonald’s needs to change its strategy for marketing to children and communities of color?

WENN

Are things changing in the advertising world? Just last year many complained of the lack of advertising targeting the African-American community. Now comes news that two new major campaigns have hired black women as spokespeople, reports Target Market News.

Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas has been tapped by McDonald’s to promote its newest menu addition — the egg-white breakfast sandwich, an addition that aims to counter some of the healthy eating complaints the company has come up against. Rather than being featured in ads, Douglas will promote the new breakfast item at the restaurant chain’s events. (Total aside, Gabby’s on TODAY this morning talking about her new book and getting back to the gym.)

By utilizing Douglas, McDonald’s also hopes to increase spending by blacks at the chain. According to The Buying Power of Black America, of the $22.4 billion all black households spent eating out in 2011, more than 11% ($2.6 billion) was spent on breakfast meals. This was an increase of 9% from 2010.

Photo: Denver Louis

And home furnishings giant Simmons Bedding Company has hired Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American female astronaut, to be part of a major forthcoming ad campaign. We recently spoke with Jemison at SXSW about leading the 100 Year Starship project , which will focus on sending and sustaining humans in interstellar space travel within the next 100 years.

Jemison may seem like an odd choice for a mattress company, but the campaign will mark the first national television advertising endeavor for a line of bedding, the Comforpedic line from Beautyrest, a “memory foam” bed for “those in the know,” Target Market News says.

According to Target Market News, it is a smart move for the company to use Jemison. Once again quoting the Buying Power of Black America report, black homes spent $4.6 billion on furniture in 2011, with $846 million spent on mattresses and box springs.

Source: Shutterstock

As much as you try your hardest to always pack your lunch, it’s only inevitable that you will find yourself inside a fast food chain at some point. Fast food is simple, very affordable, and, well, fast makes it a top option for people on the go.

Does your mouth just water at the thought of a juicy burger and fries? Hold the mayo people, because too much bad food can really do your body harm. There’s obesity, heart disease, and so many other preventable issues that come with the regular indulgence of fast food.

It’s good to know there are healthier options at an affordable price. Whether you make substitutions to your meal or opt for something different, the littlest of changes can go a long way.

Seriously though? Are people just having sex wherever they can nowadays? Because there’s no reason a used condom should be in the play area at a McDonald’s, let alone in the restaurant at all. But it was in early February, when Anishi Spencer took her sons, three-year-old Jonathan and two-year-old Jacquel Hines, to the fast food chain in the Gage Park neighborhood and found the dirty “barrier device” on the ground near the play area, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

The youngest child, Jacquel, later came to his mother, coughing up a piece of the condom that he had tried to eat, and fearing what else he might have taken in his system, Spencer took her sons to the hospital for treatment. Though the children didn’t end up sick or have any serious side effects from messing with the condom, Spencer was beyond disgusted and was irate with the neighborhood McDonald’s for allegedly even having a condom in their restaurant. Therefore, she has filed a lawsuit against McDonald’s Corp. and McDonald’s of Illinois, accusing them of not doing a good job of cleaning up “hazardous debris from an area used by children.” She also says they should have done a better job surveillance-wise to make sure sexual activity wasn’t taking place in or around the establishment…seeing as it’s an eatery and not a brothel. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the lawsuit is claiming negligence on the part of the restaurant chain and Spencer wants $50,000 to help pay for the children’s medical treatment and clearly for some other stuff…

All in all, if the story is true, that’s the one of the most disgusting things I think I’ve ever heard. But I can believe that a condom could pop up somewhere in an establishment like McDonald’s. Just walking to the train in NYC every day they’re damn near everywhere if you go down the wrong street. However, I also wonder why she wouldn’t be watching this whole, child finds condom on floor, child picks up condom on floor, child puts condom in mouth scenario? I know parents can’t see and do everything all the time, but still, those are some very young kids so eyes need to be on them as much as possible, and if they were, maybe something as gross as this wouldn’t have happened. But once again, condom and McDonald’s shouldn’t even be in the same sentence…Whatever happened, I think we can agree that this story’s gross level is on a maximum high.

Do you think Ms. Spencer will actually win?

From BlackVoices

We knew working at McDonald’s wasn’t the greatest gig in the world, but we didn’t know it was this bad.

After 20 years cooking burgers and manning the fryer for the national chain, Tyree Johnson still makes just the minimum wage, Bloomberg reports. That’s $8.25 an hour in 44-year-old Johnson’s hometown of Chicago, where he works at two different McDonald’s restaurants.

The CEO of McDonald’s, Bloomberg points out, made $8.75 million last year.

In an emailed statement, a McDonald’s spokesperson pointed out that the majority of the company’s restaurants are independently owned. “We value our employees’ well-being and the contributions they make to our restaurants, and thank them for what they do each and every day,” wrote Cheryll Ocampo Forsatz.

Read more at BlackVoices

Shutterstock

Love your Cover Girl? Nielsen just compiled a list of companies spending the most to advertise to the African-American community, and Cover Girl parent company, Procter & Gamble, has topped the list.

Still the advertising dollars companies spend on black media do not compare to the billions spent in the general market media.  “Black media receives only 2 percent of the $120 billion advertising dollars spent with general media,” reports Insight News. “The top 10 advertisers spent a total of $321,892,840 with African-American media in 2012, up 1.99 percent over 2010.”  P&G spent $75.3 million and rounding out the top three are L’Oreal ($39.9 million) and McDonald’s ($34.9 million).

According to Nielsen and the National Newspaper Publishers Association in the 2011 report “State of the African-American Consumer,” black buying power will reach $1.1 trillion by the year 2015. The prospect of making money is is driving companies to increasingly target the African-American consumer.

Here is the list of top advertisers, as reported by Black America Web:

1)   Procter & Gamble
2)    L’Oreal
3)    Johnson & Johnson
4)    General Motors
5)    Mc Donald’s
6)    Verizon
7)    U.S. Government
8)    AT&T
9)    Berkshire Hathaway (car insurance,  life insurance, annuity sales and sales of jewelry)
10)   National Amusements

Which of these products do you use? Are you more likely to use products that are advertised in black media?

iStockphoto

Unfortunately, Hurricane Sandy has brought the realities of a major power outage to thousands in cities and towns across the Northeast. Sometimes, the circumstances aren’t quite that extreme. An electrical issue in your house, a blackout in your apartment building, or a snafu at the office can make juicing up your computer an impossibility.

On BlackEnterprise.com, writer Janel Martinez recommends readers to take advantage of the myriad places where free WiFi is in high supply. Did you know McDonald’s offers free WiFi to more than 11,500 locations? And while you might be buying many of your books from Amazon these days, Barnes and Noble is a great source for Internet service.

For more suggestions, visit Black Enterprise.

Source: Keetsa.com

I’m starting to think McDonald’s attracts a certain type of customer like Walmart because there’s just no excuse for the level of violence that takes place in this fast food chain.

Yesterday, a patron at a Lakeland, FL, McDonald’s completely flipped out when he was overlooked in line. Employees thought they were in the clear when the irate man left the premises, but he returned just 20 minutes later, jumped over the counter, and started beating the manager with a baseball bat.

The man was in and out of the store in no more than 30 seconds from the time he jumped over the counter to calmly leaving the restaurant, making sure he didn’t leave any prints by grabbing the doorknob with his sleeve. Too bad he forgot about the surveillance video.

Police are still working on identifying the man, but workers say they recognized him from the night before when he went off about the service he received that night as well. Lakeland police Captain Greg Policastro told ABC news:

“Perhaps this individual has anger management issues or some other things going on in their life or in their mind that’s creating this type of anger.”

Meanwhile, the manager was taken to the hospital with a bruised rib.

They’re going to have to start incorporating self-defense classes into their job training at Mickey Ds. This is getting ridiculous. Check out the surveillance video and 911 call here.

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Source: NY Post

Anybody over the age of five knows you don’t play with people’s money, and when we’re talking millions of dollars, things could get ugly.

As you know by now, there were three wining tickets in last week’s $656 million Mega Millions lotto, one of which a Maryland woman named Mirlande Wilson has laid claim to. The problem is Mirlande says the $105 million lump sum she’ll receive after taxes is all hers but her coworkers at McDonald’s say they all went in on that ticket together and the money belongs to all of them. Now Mirlande is trying to explain her way out of the million-dollar split.

“We had a group plan, but I went and played by myself. [The ‘winning’ ticket] wasn’t on the group plan,” the 37-year-old told the NY Post.

“I was in the group, but this was separate. The winning ticket was a separate ticket.”

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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