An online maths tutoring programme for Australian secondary school students sponsored by the fast food chain McDonald’s has been attacked by public health experts as “a disgraceful exercise in advertising junk food.”

McDonald’s recently released figures showing that more than one third of Australia’s 1.46 million secondary students have signed up to the free programme (http://mathsonline.com.au), which carries the company’s logo and says “proudly provided by your local McDonald’s restaurant.”

Mike Daube, president of the Public Health Association Australia, said that the sponsorship is “an outrageous means of promoting junk food directly to children.”

“McDonald’s are superb marketers, who are only in this for one reason—to sell more …