Advocates Attack 'Sesame Street' Sponsorship

BOSTON Sesame Street, long one of the Public Broadcasting Service’s flagship shows, has come under fire for airing corporate sponsorship messages from McDonald’s.

Commercial Alert, a nonprofit public advocacy group backed by Ralph Nader, has sent a letter to Gary Knell, president and chief executive of the show’s production company, Sesame Workshop, asking that McDonald’s messages not be shown before or after episodes of the children’s series.

The letter from Commercial Alert president Gary Ruskin accuses McDonald’s of selling high-calorie offerings “that have helped to cause an epidemic of childhood obesity and soaring incidence of type 2 diabetes.”