In the past few years, McDonald’s has taken a hit to their reputation – from movies like “Food, Inc.”, “Fast Food Nation” and “Super-size Me.”

Now, they are out to improve that “unhealthy” reputation.

On March 3, 2010, they announced that Weight Watchers would promote and endorse several McDonald’s meals as healthy options for weight loss. If Weight Watchers ever had a serious reputation, it was gone that day.

Now, another layer of PR has appeared with McDonald’s seeking to convince consumers of their financial importance to their communities and to the farmers of their state. Recently, an insert into a Wisconsin newspaper made many interesting claims. I particularly like the “returned nearly 45 cents of every dollar earned to the local economy.” – Translated, that means they paid their workers less than half of what they earned and more than half was profit.

They listed the following as purchased from Wisconsin farms:

52 million pounds of cheese
28 million pounds of beef
3.5 million gallons of milk
8.8 million pounds of pickles
1.2 million pounds of pork

Forgetting that most of us don’t really call plastic stuff on McDonald’s hamburgers “cheese” – look at this list. What’s wrong with this picture?

Or, if I was tweeting, WWWTP???

The milk might contribute to health. The pickles might not HURT you, but this is basically what’s wrong with most Americans’ diets. Not a fruit, a vegetable or a complex grain shows up on the list. No wonder weight loss is so illusive! No healthy diet can survive collision with McDonald’s menu of high-fat salads and Filet-o-Fish sandwiches, no matter what Weight Watchers says.

I wonder if McDonald’s purchased any of their salt, preservatives or high-fat salad dressings in Wisconsin?

Any of their nasty reconstituted potatoes?

Perhaps some of the grease?

Or the sugar they put in practically every food item (even hamburger buns) so you get ADDICTED!

No mention of those. But I forget… we’re talking PR here. The spin is that “McDonald’s isn’t so bad after all.”

Well, I’m not buying.