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Strollerderby
AOL’s ParentDish reported today that Burger King is trying to draw kids – and hurried parents – in for breakfast by offering a kids’ meal replete with plastic toy. The Chicago Tribune’s Breaking Business blog posted the story yesterday, noting that the meal is to consist of a child-size breakfast sandwich, apple slices and calcium-fortified apple juice — weighing in at 11.5 grams of fat.
While Burger King is boasting that the meal conforms to fat and calorie standards set by the Council of Better Business Bureau’s Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, it contains 18 percent of the recommended daily allowance of fat. A serving of Quaker Quick Oats using 1/2 cup of skim milk contains only 3 grams of fat, or 4 percent of the recommended daily intake. Busy parents, take note: Oatmeal is fast and easy to make and is also low in sodium and high in fiber. Not to mention that it tastes a lot better than rubbery breakfast “meat.”
No matter how you feel about fast food in-and-of itself, the real reason for concern here is, of course, the toy. As Paula reported last month, a watchdog group has pans to sue rival fast-food chain McDonald’s for using toys to lure small children, citing that “deceptive marketing… is illegal under consumer protection laws.” Do we really need to reward or bribe our kids into eating breakfast? What’s next? Giving them an embossed certificate just for waking up? GOOD MORNING, JOHNNY! YOU DID IT! YOU GOT OUT OF BED THIS MORNING! You get a gold star. Now hurry up and get dressed so we can wait in line at Burger King to get some apple slices… and the latest Twilight toy. Continue reading »
We don’t allow liquor and cigarette companies to advertise on television. So why should we allow fast food commercials?
Since fast food advertising plays a major role in the childhood obesity epidemic, a ban on fast food commercials might reverse the trend. In fact, past research has shown that a ban on fast food advertisements would cut number of overweight children ages 3 to 11 by 18% and drop the number of overweight adolescents ages 12 to 18 by 14%.
The good news is that kids are seeing fewer commercials for cookies, candy bars, and sugar-sweetened beverages. But the bad news is that the number of children who saw TV commercials for fast food dramatically increased between 2003 and 2007, according to an article appearing in the September print edition of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
Surprisingly, public opinion — at least in England — favors limiting junk food ads on TV. Some 60% of parents thinks commercials for junk food should be restricted, according to an opinion poll by Manchester-based health campaigners Our Life. Continue reading »
It’s used in everything from candy to soup to salad dressings to fruit roll-ups. Now a new report says that food coloring poses cancer risks, hyperactivity in kids, and allergies.
Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6, the three most widely used dyes, have known carcinogens, according to a new report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the same group that is threatening to sue McDonald’s over Happy Meals. The Food and Drug Administration has previously acknowledged that the dye Red 3, is a carcinogen, yet it is still widely used.
This falls into the category of “they really should have known better.” McDonald’s is recalling some 12 million drinking glasses sold to promote the movie Shrek Forever After because cadmium has been found in the painted design of the movie characters on the outside of the glass. Who tests these things, and why, again, would McDonald’s not bother to do it themselves, say, before selling 12 million of them? More importantly, if this has been your kids’ go-to obsession drinking glass for the few weeks they’ve been out there, should you worry? McDonald’s (not surprisingly), says not, and the Consumer Products Safety Commission rather tentatively agrees.
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.
We’ve all been there, drunk and passed out on the fast food restaurant playland, the kids joyfully amusing themselves. It’s the picture of a perfect afternoon until the dumb cops arrive. So presented with such an intrusion, naturally you turn your children into weapons.
And who wouldn’t? We’ve all dreamed of controlling our own vicious legion of toddlers, eager to do our evil bidding. I mean, that’s why we had kids in the first place. But quickly after they’re born we learned our babies are more interested in gnawing on the corner of a Dora blanket than being our henchman.
But one drunk father in Colorado Springs never gave up.
Joshua Alger, 28, is the aforementioned man. When McDonald’s employees called the police on the prostrate Alger the cops realized he already had a warrant out.
So Alger released his hounds kids. Alger freaked, commanding his kids to “bite the officers’ faces off.” They didn’t.
And what is the punishment for sicking your kids on the cops? You get tased, bro. No, the cops did not tase the kids too.
One wonders if this was a scenario he’d already prepared for, training his kids to attack on command. On a serious note, let’s hope these kids have more sober relatives willing to take them.
Source: Denver Westword
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Year of the Rat. Year of the Horse. Year of Cupid the Love God? One of these things is definitely not like the other.
That’s what a bunch of bloggers in Singapore thought, too. McDonald’s restaurants in the predominantly ethnic Chinese country promoted a line of small stuffed dolls depicting the Chinese zodiac. But when they got to the Year of the Pig, they replaced the porcine plush with Cupid the God of Love (presumably to run near Valentine’s Day.)
Lori Garcia 
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
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