Boy o' boy, the spectre of being blamed for the millions of bloating tots around the U.S. of A. has McDonalds reverting to extreme measures.

Ronald McDonald, the company mascot and "chief happiness officer," is going to become its public fitness guru.

Some excerpts from the Washington Post article:

Ronald, the company's newly dubbed "chief happiness officer," has become the company's "ambassador for an active, balanced lifestyle," McDonald's Chief Creative Officer Marlena Peleo-Lazar told a government panel yesterday. Her announcement came the same week an appeals court reinstated a lawsuit against McDonald's in which two New York teenagers claim they got fat because the company hid the health risks of its food. ...

In the past, the Ronald McDonald character has visited schools to teach about such issues as bike safety and literacy. Now the clown will be touting physical activity. No burgers or fries will be promoted. "Ronald does not promote food, but fun and activity -- the McDonald's experience," said company spokesman Walt Riker.

The campaign was criticized by Harvard psychologist Susan Linn, author of "Consuming Kids."

"It's just another marketing ploy for McDonald's," she said. "It has no place in the school. The amount of exercise it will take to exercise off everything these kids consume will take all day."

The program has been reviewed and approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics. "We're not endorsing McDonald's or Ronald McDonald, but wanted to make sure the message was safe and appropriate," said Reginald L. Washington, co-chairman of the academy's task force on obesity. The program, he said, "takes advantage of the fact that Ronald McDonald has such recognition with kids that if he tells them to get moving, maybe they will do it."