Group will sue McDonald's over Happy Meal toys
 

WASHINGTON – Are the toys in your child's Happy Meal making him fat?

The Center for Science in the Public Interest says they are. The Washington-based consumer advocacy group threatened to file a lawsuit against McDonald's Tuesday, charging that the fast food chain "unfairly and deceptively" markets the toys to children.

"McDonald's marketing has the effect of conscripting America's children into an unpaid drone army of word-of-mouth marketers, causing them to nag their parents to bring them to McDonald's," CSPI's Stephen Gardner wrote to the heads of the chain in a letter announcing the lawsuit.

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Really? Who else are they going to market the toys to? :rolleyes:

I'm 95% : Parent your own fucking children :mad:
2%: But sometimes I like the toys :(
and
3%: McD's shouldn't be marketed to kids because it's shitty for them.

Maybe once a month I will indulge and we will get fast food as a treat, take it to a park and eat, then go hike or play hard.

Sometimes, my daughter begs for McD toys... and I have no problem telling her, "NO."

..."Still, some may accuse the group of extremism, arguing that it's the parents' responsibility to monitor what their children eat, not the restaurant's.
Michael Jacobson, executive director of CSPI, says it's the parents responsibility too, but he equates the toy giveaways to a door to door salesman coming to a family's house every day and asking to privately speak with the children.
"At some point parents get worn down," Jacobson says. "They don't always want to be saying no to their children. We feel like an awful lot of parents would be relieved if this one pressure was removed from them."...

My parents must have been superhuman then because my brothers and I could beg and plead all we want. (Which we really didn't because we learned at a very early age it got us nowhere.) The answer was NO! I'm not saying we never went, but it sure wasn't because of some promotional toy. We couldn't even get sugared cereals that were over 8 grams of sugar while school was in session. You think the cool toys were in Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies? Uh no, they were not. Looking back on it, I was a very healthy child and really don't think I missed out. How many people still have those little toys and stickers and whatnot that were in the meals and boxes anyway?

Quote:

"McDonald's marketing has the effect of conscripting America's children into an unpaid drone army of word-of-mouth marketers, causing them to nag their parents to bring them to McDonald's,"

shuuuuut the fuck up. smh.

If I go to McD's I will often get a children's meal (I can be full on the smaller portion no problem) and play with the toy. :) After I play for awhile, I give it to my nephew. He never wants for McD toys because I'm his supplier.

Sure, happy meals are not the greatest thing, but "real" restaurants are often MUCH worse for kids. My co-worker was recently comparing kids choices at places like Chili's, Applebee's, etc, to try to decide where they would go for dinner and the calorie counts on those suckers were really gross.

and then there are the times parents fight the kids because they want the toys also.

*argues against calling Applebees a "real" restaurant*

McD's was a treat in my household when I was a child. It was a family place and all of the meals were eaten in moderation within a family setting. One of the coolest things was my parents bringing us some fries and a Fillet-o-Fish if we did well on a test.

Fast forward almost 30 years and fast food is a daily meal replacement for people. The food is bigger and more fattening than it was when I was a kid. Some families are too tired, lazy, inept, whatever, to place meals within the family context. Everyone's eating until their brains fall out. That isn't McD's fault but capitalism is based on supply and need. Capitalists are strategic in how they make money and therefore aren't fully free from blame.

(I still love a FRESH BATCH of McD's fries, sundae, ice cream cone, Fillet-o-Fish, or McChicken from time to time)

That Michael Jacobson dude has been bitching about fast food for the past 30 years. You can see how effective he's been. I remember seeing a picture of him (he was uber geeky looking) and thinking "whatever this dude is advocating, I want to do the opposite."

If parents are pussies and do whatever their kids want, it's really not McDonald's problem. On another note, our McD's used to give out a free cheeseburger if we got an A on our report card. Damn you for tricking me into getting good grades, McDonald's.

I'm sorry what did you say???


Cheeseburger made between two grilled cheese sandwiches:

http://consumerist.com/2010/06/frien...-arteries.html

Friendly's Burger Has Grilled Cheese Sandwiches For Buns

http://consumerist.com/grilledcheeseburgermelt.jpg

It is so wrong, but I kind of want to try a bite.

WTF?! WHY?!

Looking at that made me throw up and shart.

A bite?! I want the whole dang thing!

I suspect it's more of a "why not"

That's how the best and the worst of the strangest food combos were created.

Some of my very own food indulgences came from "why not?" :o

This is really ridiculous. The happy meal is actually better than the alternative, feeding children the full sized adult versions of the McD's hamburgers. Having a toy in the meal does not make children fat. Having parents make McD's the major part of their childrens' diets is what is making children fat. Good try, though.

I'm still :mad: at the babysitter my kids had that taught them Happy Meals can come with fries and soda. I had them fully convinced that Happy Meals = nuggets, apples (with no sauce), and milk.

Still, when they insist they want fries, I get one with apples and one with fries and the kids split the apples and fries. The soda is still a NO. Also, it's probably been 4 months since we've been to McD's. Taco Bell, on the other hand...well...:o:o:o

You should tell them that only SOME McD's have fries and cokes with their happy meals! Kids can be pretty dumb. :p

Oh man, when they catch on though. They try to school you. "You're so dumb, we went to the McDonalds by grandma and and you said they didn't have coke. AND THEY DID!!"

And I'd say, "You were dumb enough to believe me! Ha!" This is why I don't have kids...I could never let them win.

Ha! I'd be sitting there going "Nuh uh" "Uh HUH" "Nuh UH" "Uh HUH" with them for hours.

You know, that could be effective, they'd get bored at some point.

For the first time in my adult life, I can finally say I HATE YOU.

lol

Everyone knows that fish is good for you, right? A local restaurant around here used to serve a Fish Club Sandwich. Sorry, no picture is available, but it had a piece of fried fish on toast, cheese, another piece of toast, then tuna salad, lettuce, tomato and a last piece of toast. It sounds disgusting, but was really good (if they left the tarter sauce out). It was taken off of the menu when people started asking "where's the bacon?" because everyone just knows that a Club Sandwich has bacon on it! :rolleyes:

As for the Happy Meal, why are so many people unwilling to parent their own kids? Have kids become accessories to a family, so that nobody ever has to say no, or because it's not good for you, or (heaven forbid!) you will not embarrass me? I knew "the look" before I was three, and for the life of me, I cannot understand parents who lost their spine with the afterbirth!

I can feel my arteries hardening just looking at that.

We've got sandwiches like this and KFC's "Double Down" (a sandwich with two fried chicken filets instead of bread?!?) and we wonder why so many Americans - children and adults - are obese.

Of course the Happy Meals are marketed to children, and the toys are part of that. So the children "nag their parents to bring them to McDonald's" to get the toys. There's a wonderful little word that all parents should learn well: NO.

Personally, I don't think advertising should be able to be marketed to kids under 10. I'm more than willing to parent my kids, and have no trouble saying no, but I don't think kids under 10 are an appropriate market. At that age, parents should be making the buying decisions - market to THEM.

Plus the ads are annoying.