1.

Introduction

Childhood obesity is a significant worldwide disease concern that has gradually augmented in
occurrence over the past thirty years. Tackling this prevalence is currently on the schedule of
closely all the regimes in the West (O’Dea, 2005). When it comes to this epidemic in Australia,
Booth, Chey, Wake et al (2002) and Magarey, Daniels and Boulton (2001) have asserted that the
prevalence of childhood obesity in the country has been quite high by international standard, and
its rate is keeping increasing. This issue in Australia has mainly concentrated on the promotion
of junk foods, with critics on the fast food industry and on McDonald’s specifically. The issue of
childhood obesity has become so significant that the fast food industry and consumers cannot
remain untouched. The issue is compelling, players in the fast food industry to watch over the
quality of foods they offer to their consumers in order to avoid their food being qualified as junk
foods, causing obesity, and have bad corporate reputation; and consumers to pay significant
attention to the kind of food they consume, in order to avoid obesity.

Therefore, this report will aim at assessing the impact of junk foods and food advertising on
childhood obesity in Australia. It has become significant for the public at large to get inform and
knowledgeable on the issue of childhood obesity as this has become rampant and causing
significant damages to the child. Understanding the issue and the way to avoid it for the
goodness of children should be a significant asset. Consequently, the following lines will identify
the key stakeholders involved in the issue of childhood obesity and identify the level of concern
and responsibility of each stakeholder, then the way media has tackled the issue will be assessed
and some suggestions or recommendations will be given to avoid or reduce significantly the
prevalence of the issue.

2. Stakeholders
In Business, a stakeholder stands for any person or groups that impact or is impacted by a
company’s decisions, operations and policies. There are several stakeholders that are impacted
by a company’s decisions, operations and policies, and according to the level of impact, they are
classified as internal and external stakeholders. The group of internal stakeholders comprises
employees and managers; as for external stakeholders it can comprises stockholders, customers,
governments, society, media, competitors and Nongovernmental Organizations.

For this specific business issue, the key stakeholders are managers, employees, customers
(community) and government.

2.1. Managers and employees (Company)

Managers and employees are part of the company and they are representative of the company.
They are the internal stakeholders as they are the one shaping and implementing the company’s
policies, decisions and operations. Consequently, managers and employees of McDonald’s are
the internal stakeholders of the company.

According to the Suncorp values (Fig. 1), a company core values should be trust, honesty,
courage, fairness, respect and caring. This means that regarding the issue of childhood obesity
caused by junk food and fast food advertising, the company through managers and employees
are directly concerned (Galvin, 2005). They should have been more caring for the health of the
consumers. Their honesty should have been seen through the transparency in their operations.
The honesty and trust that the company should portray will reflect of their compliance to
business ethics.

Consequently, the issue has significantly affected the corporate reputation of the company, as the
name of the company has been poorly or frequently associated or linked with junk food and poor
advertising, both causing childhood obesity. Simon (2015) on ABC Radio Melbourne stated that
McDonald’s has been awarded worst of the decade in the category of advertising junk food to
children. By affecting the corporate reputation of the company, the impact will be seen on the
sales, as the product or the company will be boycotted (Daily Telegraph, 2005a). At the
managerial level, their reputation will also be affected as they are the key decision-makers within
the company. At the employees level, the poor reputation of the company they are working for
could significantly tarnish the motivation they have to work and also the atmosphere are the
workplace, since they will have the feeling to work for the wrong company, as the corporate
image is stained (Lee and Metherell, 2005).

Figure 1: Suncorp Values

2.2. Customers and Communities

Those two stakeholders have been joined because customers are part of the communities.
According to the General Systems Theory, organisms cannot be comprehended in isolation, even
though they have clear limits, they can only be comprehended in relationships to their
surroundings. Consequently, companies and communities (customers) are part of an interactive
social system. A Company is a part of a larger social environment and is compelled to interact
with the community, and customers are part of that community (Fig. 2). This means that any
decision, policy and operation of the business are reflected on the community.
 Figure 2: Interaction between Business and Society

Consequently, regarding the issue of childhood obesity, children as part of the community and of
the customers of McDonald’s are other key stakeholders. Children have been directly affected by
the quality of the food or the junk food served by the company and also by their advertising on
the fast food. Since the annual Fame and Shame awards has been launched in Australia,
highlighting the marketing techniques used to advertise unhealthy food to children, McDonald’s
has been named (ABC News, 2015). In addition to that, the fast food industry has been criticized
and restrictions have been asked on promotion of unhealthy foods during kids’ viewing periods
(Pritchard, 2003).

The widespread of childhood obesity has become a significant public health issue that augments
morbidity, mortality and has significant long-term social and economic costs (Kar et al, 2014;
Sahoo et al, 2015). This obesity has been linked to the poor eating habit of the children. And this
has been encouraged by the kind of food advertising they watch. The Australian Associated
Press General News, (2005) stated that advertising on junk foods can augment the quantity of
unhealthy food selections children make.

2.3. Government

Government is the body or the institution in charge of regulating the interaction between the
business and the society or the community where it operates, through policies, norms,
regulations, licenses, institutions and so on. Therefore government is a key stakeholder in the
issue of children obesity due to junk foods and advertising on them either by McDonald’s or any
other fast food player (Daily Telegraph, 2005b).

The fact that this issue has been prevalent indicates that the government has been lenient on its
overseeing role in the industry. This issue reveals that the government has failed to implement
control or regulating measures in order to ensure of the quality of the foods the company offers
and to monitor the kind of advertising displayed to the attention of the children.

3. Media’s Perspective

Media is another key stakeholder in the scope of this business issue. This is due to the fact that it
is their platform or support that is used by the company to display the advertising. In addition to
that, media is the platform where social issues should be voice out and displayed in order to
educate the mass or the community.

Nevertheless, sometimes, media are involved in what is known as media bias. Media bias is
portrayed as a prevalent of extensive bias disobeying the ethics of journalism, instead of the
viewpoint of an article or individual journalist (Livingstone and Helsper, 2004). It also defined as
the perceived partiality or unfairness of news producers and journalists within the mass media in
the choice of stories and events that are conveyed and the way they are covered.

As regarding the issue of childhood obesity, it has been largely covered by media in Australia,
such as ABC News, the Medical Journal of Australia (2007) and The Guardian (2014). The ABC
News has used a picture as media item to display the extent of childhood obesity due to poor
food eating and junk food advertising (Fig. 3). The picture displays a 16-month old girl who is
already showing signs of obesity as she looks very fat for her age. The Guardian (2014) has
relied on statistics to present the issue. Based on the article in The Guardian, the Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare has revealed statistics demonstrating that a quarter of children
were obese in 2012, and increase of 23% in comparison to 2007-2008.
 Figure 3: Parents' Voice campaigns manager Alice Pryor with her 16-month-old daughter
Annabel and five-year-old son Charlie.

Based on the transparency of these media items, we can conclude that the media have not been
influenced or have not suffered from any media bias in the covering and reporting of the issue.
The media has pointed clearly to the politicians and fast food industry as the source of the issue
and consequently, the solution should also come from them.

4. Conclusion (Future Direction)

It is significant to any company as stakeholder to act in an ethical way in order to preserve its
corporate reputation and corporate image to be stained. The ethical behavior of the company will
ensure that the company takes in consideration of the wellbeing or its impacts on the other
stakeholders, mainly their customers and the community. It is also significant for the community
to be careful on their consumption pattern; their level of trust to the company should not stop the
community to be watchful. The government should play its role of regulator in the society by
ensuring that fast food company offer quality foods and that suitable advertising been made for
children. This aspect call on the role of media to not be biased and to ensure that they filter the
kind of content they display and denounce any issue arising in order to warn to the society.

McDonald’s and other fast food players should implement a crisis management that should
outcome to the review of their menus. The government should ban junk foods advertising for
children and ensure on the healthiness of the food sold by fast food.
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