McHealthy

What strategies are used by McDonald's to convince consumers that they are committed to supporting healthy lifestyle choices?
The general public is unlikely to question the messages in McDonald's ads, "in part because it has established itself as a patriotic symbol through years of advertising."
- Cartwright and Sturken, Practices of Looking

Please respond to any/all of the following:
1. Go Active adult Happy Meal ad with Bob Greene (Oprah's personal trainer)
2. Go Active ad
3-4. Passport to Play school curriculum ads
5. McDonald's Australia responds to the film Super Size Me
6. Fast food facts from Super Size Me







Fast food facts from the Super Size Me Web site

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• Each day, 1 in 4 Americans visits a fast food restaurant
• In 1972, we spent 3 billion a year on fast food - today we spend more than $110 billion
• McDonald's feeds more than 46 million people a day - more than the entire population of Spain
• French fries are the most eaten vegetable in America
• You would have to walk for seven hours straight to burn off a Super Sized Coke, fry and Big Mac
• In the U.S., we eat more than 1,000,000 animals an hour
• 60 percent of all Americans are either overweight or obese
• One in every three children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime
• Left unabated, obesity will surpass smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in America
• Obesity has been linked to: Hypertension, Coronary Heart Disease, Adult Onset Diabetes, Stroke, Gall Bladder Disease, Osteoarthritis, Sleep Apnea, Respiratory Problems, Endometrial, Breast, Prostate and Colon Cancers, Dyslipidemia, steatohepatitis, insulin resistance, breathlessness, Asthma, Hyperuricaemia, reproductive hormone abnormalities, polycystic ovarian syndrome, impaired fertility and lower back pain
• The average child sees 10,000 TV advertisements per year
• Only seven items on McDonald's entire menu contain no sugar
• Willard Scott was the first Ronald McDonald - he was fired for being too fat
• McDonald's distributes more toys per year than Toys-R-Us
• Diabetes will cut 17-27 years off your life
• McDonald's: "Any processing our foods undergo make them more dangerous than unprocessed foods"
• The World Health Organization has declared obesity a global epidemic
• Eating fast food may be dangerous to your health
• McDonald's calls people who eat a lot of their food "heavy users"
• McDonald's operates more than 30,000 restaurants in more then 100 countries on 6 continents
• Before most children can speak they can recognize McDonald's
• Surgeon General David Satcher: "Fast food is a major contributor to the obesity epidemic"
• Most nutritionists recommend not eating fast food more than once a month
• 40 percent of American meals are eaten outside the home
• McDonald's represents 43% of total U.S. fast food market

Served Hot Daily

We all know that sex(y) sells, but in a McDonald's ad?
McDonald's ads are now associating their "healthy menu options" with high fashion imagery.

Please respond to any/all of the following:

1. Heidi Klum ad

2-3. McDonald's ads from Japan

All the Cool Kids are Lovin

What do these ads really sell?
Many cultural theorists argue that ads sell lifestyle and identification with brand names and corporate logos. Michel Foucault's term docile bodies refers to the concept that ads contribute to the social training of conformity.
Please respond to any/all of the following:

1. McDonald's ad for young adults/teens
2. McDonald's themed Barbie
3. AdBuster's anti-ad
4. McKids play place sold by Sears (99.99)
5. I'm Lovin It commercial
6. McDonald's commercial -Cha Cha slide

Global Warming is FUN!!!

What are the lessons being taught to children by including a toy Hummer in the Happy Meal?

Please respond to any/all of the following:
1. Hummer Happy Meal ad
2-4. Anti-ads/ critique of Hummer toy
5. Response to criticism from McDonald's VP Bob Langert





MDonalds's VP Bob Langert responds to criticism surrounding the Hummer Happy Meal toys

I see we've received some comments about the use of Hummer toys as Happy Meal promotions in our U.S. restaurants. I can see why the question is being raised.

Most importantly, I do not see this promotion as a reflection of our commitment to strategies that will conserve non-renewable resources and reduce the environmental footprint of our restaurant business--and our supply chain. The supplier environmental scorecard I've just written about is one example of those strategies. There are others in the Our Values section of mcdonalds.com and in the McDonald's Europe 2004 Environmental Report. It's posted in the section under CR Reports/Regional and Local Reports.

You'll find a whole lot more in our upcoming 2006 Worldwide Corporate Responsibility Report--our third comprehensive progress report. Look for it on our website in the next day or two.

Our company, including my staff, is deeply committed to the whole scope of corporate responsibility issues, including environmental protection. So I polled my staff who have or had children. One of them said her children enjoy the little Hummer replicas as toys, just as many kids like toy trucks, regardless of make or model. She drives a MiniCooper, walks with her children to get groceries, bicycles with them on weekends, etc. Another said her grandchildren absolutely love the toy Hummers--that they're fun.

Of course, there's nothing scientific about this poll, but I think it makes an important point. Looked at through children's eyes, the miniature Hummers are just toys, not vehicle recommendations or a source of consumer messages about natural resource conservation, greenhouse gas emissions, etc.

Thanks for your comments. We welcome the dialogue.

-- Bob

Happiness is...

Why do so many parents fall victim to the "nag factor" (children convincing parents that they will be happy if the parents buy the things they ask for)?
McDonald's has been successfully marketing Happy Meals to children age 3-9 for many years.
"Over the course of ten days in April of 1997, by including a Teenie Beanie Baby with each purchase, McDonald's sold 100 million Happy Meals."
-Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation
When purchasing a Happy Meal, you usually have a choice of the "girl toy" or "boy toy".
Please respond to any/all of the following:
1. UnHappy Meal distributed by Peta
2. Shrek3 Happy Meal ad
3.Cabbage Patch/Tonka Happy Meal ad
4. Aladdin Happy Meal ad
5. Barbie Happy Meal ad
6. Dragon BallZ Happy Meal ad

My Friend Ronald

Why do we trust Ronald and ignore the fact that he sells unhealthy food that is bad for the environment and promotes toys that reinforce gender stereotypes and serve as advetisements for other corporate commodities?
McDonald's is fully aware that they have established a public trust in Ronald McDonald. "We see this as a great opportunity," a McDonald's executive said in a press release "to create a meaningful relationship between Ronald and kids."
- Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation
Please respond to any/all of the following:
1. Ronald image created by artist Ron English
2. Promotional poster: Destiny's Child tour sponsored by McDonald's
3. McDonald's tv ads from the 1980's
4. Film clip from Super Size Me directed by Morgan Spurlock






Super Size Me: Film transcript- Who's That?
Morgan Spurlock: [To kids] I'm gonna show you some pictures and I want you to tell me who they are.
Children: OK.
Morgan Spurlock: [Showing a picture of George Washington] Who's that?
Child: George Washington?
Children: Good. Who was he?
Children: He was the 4th president. He freed the slaves. He could never tell a lie.
Morgan Spurlock: [Shows picture that you can't see] Who's that?
Child: George W. Bush?
Morgan Spurlock: No. That's a good guess though.
[Shows picture and its a picture of Jesus]
Morgan Spurlock: Who is this?
[Shows a picture of Wendy]
Child: Wendy!
Morgan Spurlock: Nice!
Morgan Spurlock: Who's that?
[Shows picture of Ronald MacDonald]
Child: MacDonald, Ronald MacDonald.
Child: MacDonald!
Morgan Spurlock: What does he do?
Child: He helps people at the cash register.
Child: He works at MacDonald's. I love the pancakes and sausage!
Child: He brings everyone of his friends to McDonald's for a Happy Meal
Morgan Spurlock: Where have you seen him?
Child: On television, on the commercials.
Child: He's the character that made McDonald's, and he does a lot of funny stuff on TV.

Oh, Baby

Are parents aware of how fully they participate in creating corporate brand loyalty in their young children?
"We have living proof of the long-lasting quality of early brand loyalties, in the cradle-to-grave marketing at McDonald's, and how well it works. We start taking children in for their first and second birthdays, and on and on, and eventually they have a great deal of preference for that brand. Children can carrry that with them through a lifetime." - James McNeal, Kids as Customers

Please comment on any/all of the following:
1. Baby Ronald anti-ad
2. AdBusters anti-ad
3. McDonald's ad from Austria
4. McDonald's ad- baby and the golden arches
5. McDonald's ad-baby smiles for fries