(sing this headline to the song “What a difference a day makes, 24 little hours…)

Found this on my quest to read the web every day:

In Seminole County, Florida, kids who get all A’s and B’s, have a good attendance record, or receive good marks for behavior can get a free Happy Meal at their local McDonald’s.

There is additional interesting trivia to this story, like the fact that the envelopes the report cards are sent in have this offer printed on – have to say, a probably very good and inexpensive ad campaign for McDonalds, probably just printing the envelopes for the school and maybe even paying the postage.

But that’s not really the point – what I find so fascinating is that the kids that have good grades, probably because their parents keep them away from junk food are now directly targeted to lower their grades. It is probably true that a Big Mac once in a while will not kill a kid, but why get them started in the first place. There is so much good food around actually nourishing a body that there is no need for Big Macs.

And want to see what happens if the exposure is increased and made permanent? Look at this guy who was loaned out to the the US for just a few years…

and what happened to him when he moved back to Italy a few years later after a diet of good American junk food…

PS: sorry for the little bug that I got onto your screen up there at the top of the article – it’s totally harmless, so don’t worry.