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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. Continue reading »
Fill your belly, fill the board
Would you feed your family a month of meals at McDonald’s for $1 million? That’s what it will take to maximize your chances of winning big in the hamburger behemoth’s latest promotion.
McDonald’s is once again partnering with Hasbro, makers of the Monopoly boardgame, and promising to hand out $200 million in cash and prizes in it’s McDonald’s Monopoly 2010 game. Two $1 million prizes are on the line and almost a dozen $25,000 and $50,000 cash prizes. There are also vacations, cars and other stuff if you collect enough stamps — requiring multiple purchases.
In a time when people are facing limited food options and economic hard times, this game feels, at the very least, tone deaf. Continue reading »
Several on-going experiments have shown that McDonald’s hamburgers stubbornly refuse to rot. Like ever! (Decades, people!) Ditto the fries. Does that make you think twice about offering your kid a Happy Meal (even if they skip the food — or is it “food”? — and go straight for the Happy Meal toy?
Riddhi Shah rounds up for Salon a few of the well-documented, independent tests going on right now regarding the long longevity of the popular food items.
For example, a 12-year-old hamburger that’s still looking edible (as far as fast-food hamburger edibility goes). Continue reading »
It hasn’t been a happy year for Happy Meals.
In April, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors in Silicon Valley voted in favor of effectively banning Happy Meals.
Then, in June, the nonprofit group Center for Science in the Public Interest, threatened McDonald’s with a lawsuit unless it stopped using toys to promote Happy Meals (so far, no lawsuit has been filed).
Now, San Francisco supervisor Eric Mar has introduced legislation that proposes prohibiting toys from Happy Meals and other kids meals unless the food meets certain nutritional guidelines. Basically, if the food contains too much fat, sugar, or salt, you can’t reward kids with a toy. Continue reading »
When a consumer group recently threatened to sue McDonald’s over the toys used to promote Happy Meals, critics griped that the problem isn’t the toys, it’s the food.
They’ve got a point. According to CNN, McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets contain the chemical preservative tBHQ, tertiary butylhydroquinone, a petroleum-based product. They also contain dimethylpolysiloxane, an anti-foaming agent that’s also found in Silly Putty. Lost your appetite yet?
The strange thing is that McNuggets in the U.S. are actually worse for you than their British counterparts. The U.S. version contain more calories and fat as well as more chemicals. Continue reading »
A nutrition watchdog group is threatening McDonald’s with a lawsuit unless it stops using toys to promote Happy Meals.
The nonprofit group Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), said that using toys to lure small children into McDonald’s is unfair and deceptive marketing which is illegal under consumer protection laws in Massachusetts, Texas, the District of Columbia, New Jersey and California. The group served McDonald’s a notice of its intent to sue in the states where they might file the lawsuit.
“McDonald’s is the stranger in the playground handing out candy to children,” said CSPI litigation director Stephen Gardner. “McDonald’s use of toys undercuts parental authority and exploits young children’s developmental immaturity—all this to induce children to prefer foods that may harm their health. It’s a creepy and predatory practice that warrants an injunction.” Continue reading »
These days, Ronald McDonald is probably the best-known clown amongst the Happy Meal crowd. Kids today may not know Bozo, Clarabell, or Arlecchino from I Pagliacci, but even children who have never eaten there are almost certainly familiar with the spokesclown for McDonald’s restaurants, Ronald McDonald. And that is just what makes the murderous buffoon so dangerous.
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