Starting tomorrow, the D.C. market will play guinea pig to a commercial by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine that, in essence, blames Mickey D's for the high number of heart disease-related deaths in the District.

I'm sure the tobacco industry loves this ad.

According an article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, the radical PCRM explains why it's targeting D.C. for its provocative take-down of the rainbow colored clown:

PCRM is airing the commercial to draw attention to heart-disease-related deaths in Washington. It says that the city has the second-highest rate of such deaths in the country, behind Mississippi, after adjusting for age, and that heart disease kills more than 1,500 Washingtonians each year. It also says the district has more McDonald's, Burger King and KFC restaurants per square mile than eight other similar-sized cities.

The spot will be broadcast on local news stations and on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" in the Washington area. PCRM says it is also considering running it in Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and Memphis in coming months.

Susan Levin, PCRM's director of nutrition education, says the group is singling out McDonald's because "they epitomize fast food and the permeation of fast food in the country."

The group also plans to write to Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty to seek a moratorium on the construction of new fast-food restaurants in the city. In 2008, the Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance imposing a moratorium that wound up lasting two years on the opening of new fast-food chains in a 32-square-mile area that includes some of the city's lowest-income neighborhoods.

I should note that PCRM has an active campaign to convert you to veganism.