Is Ronald on death row?

It's been a while since my last post... partly due to being busy and partly because I really don't think that there's been anything exciting to write about these last several weeks.

This morning something caught my eye that is very blog-worthy. Boston-based Corporate Accountability International, the lobby group that shut down "Joe Camel" back in the late 90s is at it again and this time, their target is the ubiquitous Ronald McDonald.

CAI believes that Ronald, as an attractive mascot for kids, has helped carve the McDonald's message into their young minds, contributing to the overwhelming childhood obesity, diabetes, etc. seen in kids today.

An initial survey showed that while the majority - 65% - said they had favourable impressions of Ronald (largely in part to the charity work that McDonald's does), 46% did agree that it was time to retire the 47 year old spokes-clown.

While CAI still has a long way to go on this battle, some analysts believe that it might make sense for McDonald's to concede since kid's meals are not the biggest share of their revenue and the corporation is still focused on growth in overseas markets.

CAI has won some important victories over the last 30+ years... I'm curious to see how this one pans out.

A McScary Revelation

Have you ever noticed just how many McDonald's restaurants there are?

McDonald's has been known to captilize on upcoming real estate opportunities and is often a good indicator of local growth. In densly populated areas, you can expect to find a Micky Dee chain within walking distance. They also tend to pop up along highways between major destinations.

Rural areas without much growth? Chances are you won't see Ronald hanging out.

Stephen Von Worley of blog-site weathersealed.com wanted to see the concentration of McDonald's restaurants across the lower 48 states to see just how predictable the megacorporation is when it comes to location selection.

With a little help from the folks over at AggData, Von Worley mapped out the 13,000 or so McDonald's restaurants in the lower 48 and came up with this incredibly cool map:

As you can see (and to nobody's surprise), the highest concentration of restaurants lie east of the Mississippi river and along the West coast. In the more rural areas, most locations lie along interstate highways.

The furthest distance between two locations:

Between the tiny Dakotan hamlets of Meadow and Glad Valley with a distance of 145 highway miles.

I'm not sure what freaks me out the most... the overall concentration of McDonald's restaurants in the US or the fact that there are over 13,000 of them. I'd love to see the results for Canada and do a comparison of obesity rates in relation to the concentration of restaurants.

McCreepy!