Studios feast on fast-food tie-ins

IT’S no secret that America is addicted to oil. But in Hollywood, the movie studios have an even more insidious addiction. They’re hooked on peddling fat-saturated fast food to children.

In “Fast Food Nation,” which opened this weekend, a roomful of marketing staffers at the fictional Mickey’s Fast Food chain are mulling over possible promotional tie-ins for the Big One, the company’s hot new burger product. One of the executives wonders if they’re getting any traction with public television. “The PBS deal isn’t happening,” another executive informs him. “Apparently Burger King and McDonald’s have the ‘Teletubbies’ all locked up.”

Armed with a brace of top acting talent, including Greg Kinnear, Ethan Hawke, Kris Kristofferson, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Bruce Willis, “Fast Food Nation” transforms the raw reportage of Eric Schlosser’s bestseller into a dramatic tale of how the nation’s addiction to fast food is involved with everything from the exploitation of immigrants to a growing childhood obesity epidemic.

The film had a lousy opening this weekend, but as Schlosser told me the other day, the “Teletubbies” reference is no fanciful screenwriting touch. Both McDonald’s and Burger King have done tie-ins with “Teletubbies,” with Burger King even selling chicken nuggets shaped like the Teletubbies.

In fact, no one is a bigger supporter of the fast-food emporiums that have colonized the known world than Hollywood’s studios. For the last 10 years, Disney had a cozy partnership with McDonald’s, with promotions specifically aimed at introducing young fans of “The Incredibles” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” to the pleasures of Happy Meals. The 10-year pact, valued at more than $2 billion, has just ended, but Disney has not ruled out doing individual McDonald’s tie-ins in the future. Disney’s top executives have never publicly explained why they ended the deal, though it appears the decision was largely based on business issues. However, the studio has issued new food guidelines saying it will eliminate added trans fat from foods involved with promotional products by the end of 2008.

McDonald’s had no trouble attracting a new Hollywood suitor. It recently signed a two-year deal with DreamWorks Animation that begins with the release of “Shrek the Third” in May. In a sign of how eager DreamWorks was to do the deal, studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg said the studio’s beloved Shrek character would appear in McDonald’s ads and the company would produce original animation for some of them.

DreamWorks is hardly the only studio in bed with fast-food companies. Warner Bros., which just released “Happy Feet,” has a giant cross promotion with Burger King, giving away a cuddly penguin to every kid who buys a Burger King Kids Meal. 20th Century Fox recently partnered with Kellogg for the release of “Ice Age: The Meltdown,” distributing kid-friendly “Ice Age” merchandise in such sugar-saturated cereals as Coca Krispies, Froot Loops, Honey Smacks and Frosted Flakes. Universal Studios had a similar promotion last winter promoting “King Kong” with Burger King, various candy bars and 18 million boxes of sugary breakfast cereals.

For Hollywood executives, the global marketing reach of fast-food outlets is the equivalent of the mound of “Scarface” cocaine. Marketers say one fast-food tie-in on a major film is often worth up to $30 million. According to advertising trade reports, Fox’s combination of promotional partners on the “Ice Age” sequel was worth $100 million to the studio. Studio insiders say the deals are now almost as much about psychology as promotion. When an animated film is released, if kids don’t see the movie’s promotions in TV ads or at their favorite fast-food stop, they subconsciously suspect that it’s not a big pop cultural event.

It’s bothersome that studios are taking our kids’ objects of affection and using them as shills for unhealthful food. To make matters worse, the whole enterprise has a pungent whiff of Hollywood hypocrisy. Most studio chiefs pride themselves on their devotion to good causes, be it Katzenberg’s involvement with AIDS charities, 20th Century Fox Co-Chairman Jim Gianopulos’ fundraising for children’s organizations or Warners Entertainment President Alan Horn’s embrace of environmental causes.

While I was reporting this story, I went to the annual dinner for Human Rights Watch, which honored a trio of activists for their selfless courage in fighting for basic human dignity. It was an inspiring evening. And much of the financial support for the dinner came from Hollywood, with major contributions from Warner Bros., Paramount, DreamWorks, Universal and 20th Century Fox.

But don’t human rights start at home, with our nation’s kids? “The obesity epidemic among children isn’t some abstract problem,” says Schlosser, a veteran investigative journalist. “It’s a national disaster and one felt most acutely by the children of the poor. If you’re a movie studio, the major provider of entertainment for children, it’s incredibly irresponsible to be allowing a popular character like Shrek -- or any other favorite kids’ character -- to endorse all sorts of wildly unhealthy products.”

According to a report last year from the Institute of Medicine, the $10 billion that fast-food companies spent in 2004 marketing food and beverages to children has played a key role in a national epidemic of childhood obesity and diabetes. The prevalence of Type 2 diabetes among young people has more than doubled in the last decade, with one in three children born in 2000 now expected to develop the disease.

Dulcie Ward, a staff nutritionist for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, was appalled to see the blizzard of tie-ins between McDonald’s and “The Chronicles of Narnia” last winter. As she wrote at the time: “What’s truly astonishing is that a book written by C.S. Lewis, who famously feared what Hollywood and Madison Avenue might do to his imaginative and deeply principled ‘Narnia’ tales, has been transformed by the marketing meat grinder into just another tool to sell unhealthy food to kids.”

It is especially troubling that studios use characters who play such a pivotal role in kids’ imaginative life to hawk Chicken McNuggets and Honey Smacks. There is no doubt that these tie-ins are good business, but at what cost? As Schlosser put it: “What’s next? Will DreamWorks use Shrek to sell Camel cigarettes too?”

Katzenberg refused to discuss his involvement with McDonald’s. So I called Horn, a studio chief I respect because he regularly sticks up for his own values, having persuaded filmmakers to take Humvees, cigarettes and excessive violence out of a number of Warners films. But this vigilance doesn’t extend to fast-food ties-ins.

“When the surgeon general puts a disclaimer on a Burger King burger saying, ‘Consuming this food is dangerous for your health,’ then we’ll get out of the fast-food business,” he told me. “I don’t see cigarettes and hamburgers being in the same category. Smoking is dangerous and addictive. It’s a lot harder to smoke in moderation than eat fast food that way. I just don’t think people who eat fast food become fast-food junkies.”

Horn contends that “you can find a healthy meal at Burger King if you choose to.” I’m not so sure. I went to my neighborhood Burger King, which is giving away cuddly Waddle Raul and Glide Lombardo penguins to everyone who buys a Kids Meal. If you order a garden salad, you get 21 grams of fat, including 3.5 grams of trans fats -- but no penguin. If you’re looking for a healthful meal, you’ve come to wrong place.

Universal Chairman Marc Schmuger says his studio is simply allying itself with the promotional partners that best fit his movies. “We’re not forcing anyone to eat fast food,” he says. “We’re encouraging people to have freedom of choice. It’s up to the individual or the family to decide where they want to eat.”

Sony Pictures Chairman Michael Lynton, whose studio had a Burger King tie-in with “Open Season,” says Sony has had “some brief conversations” about the issue, noting his studio hasn’t been a big player in the animated film business. “But it’s an issue we’re going to have to sit down and talk about.”

I want to make it clear that I’m not part of the nanny police. I’m no vegetarian. I grew up in the South, eating barbecue with my barbecue-loving daddy, and I happily take my 8-year-old son to the Apple Pan whenever he wants a burger. The fast-food companies can sell any food they want. My beef is with studio chiefs who spend their evenings supporting good causes but when they’re at the office, dealing with the health of our kids, they apparently leave their consciences at home.

I’d like to hear what readers think. In an era when childhood obesity is exploding, it’s a scandal that our entertainment elite has been blinded by the easy money they’re getting from letting huggable movie characters pitch fat-saturated food. Having been on the leading edge of so many important causes, including finding a cure for AIDS and global warming, it seems incredibly depressing that Hollywood is dragging its feet on an issue that hits us all so close to home.

No one’s saying Shrek has to get liposuction. But if he’s going to be a role model for kids, he shouldn’t be selling his soul for a Happy Meal and a side of fries.

*

“The Big Picture” runs Tuesdays in Calendar. Questions or criticism can be e-mailed to patrick.goldstein@latimes.com.