A physicians' group campaigning against McDonald's fast food offerings says that four Houston TV stations have refused to run its advertisement equating cheeseburgers with heart disease and death.

The advertisement from Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, titled "Consequences," displays a doctor and a weeping woman standing over a corpse clutching a cheeseburger in its right hand.

The 30-second spot ends with a picture of the McDonald's logo, the words "I was lovin' it," a parody of the company's "I'm lovin' it" slogan, and the voiceover, "High cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart attacks. Tonight, make it vegetarian."

The group doesn't consider the ad "that controversial," however, McDonald's officials describe it ad as "misleading."

KHOU (Channel 11) program director Lisa Shumate said, “We did receive the request and felt the spot did not meet our standards and practices (guidelines), so we told them we would not be able to run it.”

Spokesmen for three other Houston TV stations that were offered the spot – KPRC (Channel 2), KTRK (Channel 13) and KRIV (Channel 26) – either declined comment or did not return calls seeking comment.

Houston's obesity rate

Susan Levin, director of nutrition of education for the Washington, D.C., nonprofit, said all four of Houston's major network affiliates turned down "Consequences," which she said has aired in Chicago and Washington and was rejected by stations in Miami. The group was prepared to pay $5,000 to air the ad locally.

Houston was selected for the campaign, the group said, because of its market size, its reputation as having one of the nation's highest obesity rates and because it has 149 McDonald's outlets, more than any city in the nation other than New York.

Houston was the only Texas city in which the group attempted to place the advertisement.

"We don't know why it wasn't allowed to be aired," Levin said. "If it's because they are afraid of their own financial interests that might be tied to McDonald's, we couldn't have predicted that. There is nothing about the content of the ad that is outlandish."

McDonald's, however, describes the ad as "misleading and unfair to all consumers," said Cindy Goody, the company's senior director of nutrition.

"To position McDonald's in this way is not only inaccurate but misdirected and not grounded in facts," Goody said. "We encourage and educate the public to adopt recommended eating patterns in achievable, gradual and sensitive ways."

Can be seen on YouTube

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine says it promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research.

Past advertisements have criticized the federal government for school lunch policies and offered the city of Irving $75,000 if it would drop Kraft Foods as a sponsor of the implosion earlier this year of Texas Stadium, the former home of the Dallas Cowboys and display a banner reading, "Cheese blows you up."

The "Consequences" spot has been viewed more than 1.1 million times on the group's YouTube site.

richard.barron@chron.com