Thanks for reading – Stefani Newman
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“McDonald’s approached CI because they wanted to do more than just produce a happy meal, but really use their “megafone” to reach the millions of customers that walk through their doors everyday to inspire kids and families to take part in environmental activities in their everyday lives.

We were, of course, pretty excited because traditionally our messaging reaches the margins — the people who are really wanting to hear our message. With McDonald’s, however, it gave us a chance to reach consumers at a whole new scale. With the serious issue of Colony Collapse Disorder and the eco-themed Bee Movie both in the news, we had a perfect opportunity to use this unusual icon to talk about the important pollination services they provide (an estimated $14B to the US Economy alone) and the need to protect them by protecting ecosystems.

The initiative breaks down into three major components:

*A donation by McDonald’s to support two CI projects in South Africa and Mexico to protect Bee Habitat
*Enviromental Education messaging to McDonald’s customers both in-restaurants (trayliners) and online (eco-themed Bee Movie site & wireless network)
*A joint “Bee Good to the Planet” Pledge for kids and families available at conservation.org/bees and happymeal.com.

You may also be interested to know that CI has been working with McDonald’s for nearly 20 years to support field conservation and green their supply chain. That info is on our Bee Pledge pages as well.”