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fwiw, I've seen this with other fast food restaurants - Chick fil a, for one. This is similar to various other techniques - like the 'susan komen breast cancer' pink stuff. The company gets more people to buy their stuff, gets to look like a good guy, and keeps most of the profit. It's 'win' all around for them.
Still, it's a tricky situation...strict donations would technically be better, but they tend to go against human nature. People don't like to beg for handouts, and they don't generally like to give them, either. This way you have the fiction of buying and selling to cover the otherwise awkward social situation.
Think about this - girl scout cookies are also the same thing. Being a national organization, the Girl Scouts have more power to bargain for a higher percentage of the profit to go towards the actual purpose of the fundraiser, but the cookies are still made by commercial bakers at a profit.
If you simply did away with this method of fundraising, what would you replace it with?
One tactic I can see is to just ensure that the PTA analyzes exactly how much of the sales (you said '20% of the profit') and makes a decision based on that. 20% of the profit seems...not too bad, to me. Is that standard? Do other restaurants offer a 'better deal'?
From the point of view of exploiting children as sales-droids for a large corporation...this is a lot less defensible. Not sure what else to add on that note.
There's also the 'promoting poor eating choices' aspect...well, is there a 'healthier' alternative? Most fast food restaurants are about the same health-wise, if I'm not mistaken.
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