Walking through the Mayer Campus Center, one would typically see the usual cast of characters: group project assemblies merging tables near Hotung Cafe, bundled up crowds waiting for the Joey away from the cold and ambling students standing in line for their caffeine fix from The Rez. This past Thursday and Friday, however, a handful of fully dressed clowns were added to the mix.
These students in costume -- rainbow wigs, red noses and all -- were not there for the entertainment and laughs that clowns usually aim to elicit. Instead, they were there with a less humorous agenda: to rally for the “retirement” of Ronald McDonald from advertisements in an effort to stop McDonalds’ commercial targeting of children. This initiative was brought to Tufts’ campus by Tufts Food for Thought, who joined as a supporter of the project started by Corporate Accountability International in 2010.Corporate Accountability International, the same organization that worked to remove Joe Camel from Camel cigarette advertisements in 1994 and subsequently changed the social climate toward and prevalence of youth smoking, intends to push McDonalds away from the use of advertisements that aim to hook children on unhealthy foods early on in life.In setting up tables in the Campus Center, Tufts Food for Thought’s goal was to enlist the support of the greater student body in calling the chief financial officer of McDonald’s and voicing its concern with the company’s marketing tactics.
The students, clad in clown attire, tried to prompt conversations with passersby by questioning how they felt about the infamous mascot. Although the clowns were hard to ignore, their pleas for 60 seconds of attention were still met with countless shrugs of indifference. And while everyone does “have to get to class” sometimes, there is something to be said about how students choose to be a part of the campus activist climate. Tufts University is inarguably comprised of a very passionate student body, and hardly a week goes by during which a rally, information session or demonstration is not held in support or in protest of one cause or another.
And while there is merit in having one cause to believe in and support whole-heartedly, walking by other students whose causes presumably do align with your own may be a missed opportunity. It is easy to assume that campaigns for environmentalism are only the responsibility of those involved with campus sustainability, without realizing that environmental health is intimately linked to disproportions of social and human health disparities. Every call for change is multifaceted, and before deciding that someone else’s cause for concern does not inspire you to personally lend a hand, it’s important to first lend an ear.
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