On behalf of McDonald's franchisees and our 1.6 million employees around the world, I am writing to set the record straight regarding the misinformation that CSPI communicated about McDonald's in your June 22nd press release. I am referring to CSPI's threat to sue McDonald's within 30 days if we continue to include a toy as part of the positive and popular Happy Meal customer experience we provide.

We have a long history of working with responsible NGOs who are interested in serious dialogue and meaningful engagement; and we are open to constructive feedback. You say you want a dialogue with McDonald's, but your tactics and inflammatory rhetoric suggest otherwise. CSPI's twisted characterization of McDonald's as "the stranger in the playground handing out candy to children" is an insult to every one of our franchisees and employees around the world. When CSPI refers to America's children as "an unpaid drone army," you similarly denigrate parents and families, because they are fully capable of making their own decisions. You should apologize.

Here are several other things you should know.

First, the public does not support your lawsuit. Internet sites, blogs and network surveys suggest that public opinion is running overwhelmingly against your premise. Our customer websites and phone lines at McDonald's are also busy, with more than nine out of ten customers disagreeing with your agenda. Parents, in particular, strongly believe they have the right and responsibility to decide what's best for their children, not CSPI. It really is that simple.

Speaking of fast-food joints, I hope people have stopped picking on McDonald's, because have you been in a McDonald's lately? It's pitiful: it's like the whole restaurant is one big apology for its own existence. Everything they sell and do is just wreathed in contrition for all past sins real or imagined. Chicken wraps. Fruit salads. The only place Ronald McDonald appears is in a tiny icon on the bag, of him jumping around and being "active" and recycling the bag in an approved disposal container. Even the "I'm Lovin' It" slogan is printed on the bag in about seventy different languages, just in case anyone was planning to accuse McDonald's of being racist or something. Far from being purveyors of gluttonous masses of meat, you can barely even buy a frickin' burger there anymore—they get smaller every year, it seems, and even a Big Mac is less food than your typical Taco Bell gordita—but the "We're good guys, honest, please don't leave" slogans just get louder and louder. I hope people are proud of themselves.