Tuesday, August 01, 2017

How Is Reading with Ronald (McDonald) Still A Thing?

There's no denying there's a fair bit of grey to the black and white world of corporate sponsorship and public private partnerships, but the Reading With Ronald program probably doesn't fall into that category.

Simply put, Reading With Ronald sees public libraries inviting Ronald McDonald to read to kindergarteners.

Publicly funded institutions that by definition are trusted by children shouldn't be used to market anything, let along junk food, to children.

That these events occur doesn't speak so much to incompetence though, they speak to how normal it is in society today for us to pretend that corporate interests in events like these are altruistic, and not just marketing.