McDonald's slammed by health group in controversial commercial

A new commercial meant to link heart disease to fast food debuted Thursday on television in and around the nation’s capital, and it targets all of its criticism at the world’s largest quick-service chain, McDonald’s.

The ad is produced by the Washington-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, or PCRM.   The ad shows a corpse clutching a hamburger in a morgue, sports an “I was lovin’ it” tagline that riffs on McDonald’s longtime slogan, and uses the chain’s Golden Arches logo and red and yellow color scheme. The commercial’s voice-over says: “High cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart attacks. Tonight, make it vegetarian.”   McDonald’s director of nutrition, Cindy Goody, responded in a statement that the commercial was “misleading and unfair to all consumers.”   “To position McDonald’s in this way is not only inaccurate, but misdirected and not grounded in facts,” Goody said. “We offer a wide variety of menu choices that can be made into meal combinations that provide less than one-third of the government’s daily recommendation for total fat, sodium and calories. … We encourage and educate the public to adopt recommended eating patterns in achievable, gradual and sensitive ways.”