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Happy Meals Last Forever…Or at Least Six Months
Happy Meals Last Forever
McDonald’s Happy Meals have no shortage of critics — In April, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors in Silicon Valley voted in favor of effectively banning Happy Meals.
Then, in June the Center for Science in the Public Interest threatened McDonald’s with a lawsuit unless it stopped using toys to promote Happy Meals .
Meanwhile, San Francisco’s city board of supervisors is preparing to vote on an ordinance that would ban toys from McDonald’s Happy Meals.
On the upside, ongoing experiments show that Happy Meals seem to be indestructible.For the Happy Meal Project artist Sally Davies photographed the same a Happy Meal every day for the past six months.
On her flickr page, Davies writes that she purchased the McDonalds Happy Meal on April 10, 2010 and has been photographing it daily since then.
“Its sitting on my coffee table with nothing covering. it. No bugs, no mould, no smell, nothing,” she writes.
Does the knowledge that Happy Meals don’t rot make you less inclined to serve them to your kids? Obviously, a lot of the packaged food we eat has preservatives in it that will keep it fresh for a long, long time. Does that mean we shouldn’t eat any of it? Or is it okay for an occasional treat?
And what do you think Davies should do with the meal after she finishes her project?
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10 Comments
Susieq commented on Oct 12 10 at 3:04 pmExactly!!! Similar to “Toy Food” topic on http://trashbaggage.com .. At least people are aware of this monstrosity
Angie commented on Oct 12 10 at 3:16 pmBread can and will dry out before it will mold, if left out. If she wants mold she needs to cover it, she’s encouraging mold not to grow. The burger is so thin, it will dry too, especially if it’s in a warm sunny low humidity spot, she’s not bright.
lthompson commented on Oct 12 10 at 4:46 pmComments What do you mean “she’s not bright”? Are the devil’s advocate? Mold WILL accumulate if the bread is not covered, Einstien!…and it doesen’t take six months either. Tip: don’t donate YOUR brain to science, smarty!
Andy commented on Oct 12 10 at 6:39 pmAngie, you are missing the larger point. So maybe it doesn’t have mold because it dried out but she was just using that as one of the examples of what’s wrong with this situation. Any real meat left sitting out for 6 MONTHS should rot. Meat will even go bad after just a few days- by 6 months, I don’t even want to imagine what real meat would actually smell like! Real food doesn’t remain exactly the same 6 months later. That’s absolutely disgusting.
NMNY commented on Oct 12 10 at 7:02 pmThis Is wearing a little thin. It has a high salt, high, fat low moisture content. Someone, was it on Babble? Pointed put that you could accomplish the same feat with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Please, somebody drive a stake in this. Its not even original. Someone else did the same thing two years ago.
paulabernstein commented on Oct 12 10 at 7:40 pmNMNY, yes, it was on Babble – I linked to that story in this piece. Meanwhile, what do you think Davies should do with the project once it’s over? Eat it?
I agree that these “experiments” are getting a little tedious – and I’m not sure I’d qualify it as art!
NMNY commented on Oct 12 10 at 8:41 pmI used to run an experimental gallery. We had more than our fair share of Damien Hurst wannabes so this sort of thing is very familiar. At least Hurst did it for art’s sake. Old food, painfully worthy, the horror, the horror, oh what man has wrought! It never works. It’s the political equivalent of showing people your gross out scab and artistically it’s studentish. In think she should get out of San Francisco and go spend five years in some place like St. Louis or Milwaukee actually listening to people who work at McDonalds and eat at McDonalds and force herself to find the humanity in them. If she wants to make art about McDonalds she should document that.
Mistress_Scorpio commented on Oct 13 10 at 12:14 amThis whole thing reminds me of the “two molecules away from” discussions.
kate commented on Oct 13 10 at 12:30 amWe know the calorie breakdown on the food, what is the point to see if it rots or not? What does a normal hamburger do when left out? who cares? you can eat this stuff and not gain weight as long as you don’t eat a lot of it. it’s all about moderation people. check out http://www.diet-myths.com for more info about healthy eating.
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