A bunch of food activists and artists in Finland kidnapped a Ronald McDonald statute from McDonald’s and held it hostage in a series of Al-Qaeda style ransom videos. They demanded answers to questions about how McDonald’s produces it food or they would guillotine the statue. Two members of the group were arrested by police and the statue was recovered, but the group went ahead and guillotined a replica anyway.

In the YouTube videos, the members appeared dressed in black and black hoodies. Ronald was also hooded. Captions below asked questions like “Why are you not open about the manufacturing process, raw materials and additives used in your products? What are you afraid of?” and “How many tons of un-recycled waste you produce per year? Why do you not publish that figure?”

“We are a Food Liberation Army, and we hope that this extreme action will take us towards a better and safer food future.”

“Two days ago we kidnapped Ronald McDonald from a McDonald’s restaurant.”

“If you do not answer all of our questions, we will execute Ronald on Friday 11/02/2011 at 6.30pm.”

McDonald’s did not respond directly to the group’s questions but released a statement saying , “McDonald’s is always available to engage in constructive conversations with our customers, stakeholders and the media. This stunt is in very poor taste and not a responsible approach to meaningful dialog.”

“Meanwhile, we are focused on our customers and are fully transparent about our high quality food and industry-leading standards and practices.”

Children look away now: Food campaigners carry out sick spoof threat to behead Ronald McDonald after taking statue as ‘hostage’ [Daily Mail]