Food Politics

Finally! Hopefully by the time I have kids, they’ll no longer be pressing me to buy them Happy Meals because of the allure of the toys. What kid wants to order something other than a Happy Meal when that’s the one that has the toy! Most young kids care more about the toy than the actual food.

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The problem isn’t the TOY in the happy meal, it’s with those parents who get pestered and don’t say no. McDonald’s has the right to include plastic doodads in their happy meals, if they wish. It’s up to parents to exercise some PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY and be in charge of the food choices for their kids.

Why is soda full of chemicals and HFCS okay to include in a Happy Meal, but a toy isn’t? The soda directly contributes to poor health. You don’t even EAT the toy.

Having read CSPI’s letter to McDonald’s it seems as if the toy issue is a red herring. Most of the letter addresses the poor nutritional quality of happy meals and the default happy meal option being the one with unhealthy options. If nutritional quality is CSPI’s main concern then they should work to address that with McDonald’s. I have to wonder if CSPI would have an issue with a toy accompanying a happy meal that by default contained apple dippers, skim milk, and small hamburger on a whole wheat bun.

@Milehimama, i totally agree with your point. It is not the toy, but the parent(s) who gets persuaded to buy the happy meal for their child. If a parent gets so easily pestered or stressed out by their child’s request for a happy meal, then what about other more expensive, unhealthy, or harmful items?

[On another note, you can take the toy out of the happy meal, or take the happy meal out altogether, but if parents are feeding their kids junk at home, then the child isn't going to get much healthier anyway.]

I fully agree with Milihimama, Goes the same for some of the small toy recalls, right on the packaging, it says to use with children under 3. Also a few other warnings. It’s the parents responsibility to watch their child.

Fun Haters.
Listen, everything is fine in moderation. Well, just about everything. Moderation is key. Common sense and effective parenting strategies are needed. This is a free country. The celery growers can give out toys too if they want to.

But people aren’t eating this stuff in moderation. What does moderation mean anymore? I would say, based on obesity/overweight statistics and fast food sales numbers that people (and families) are not sitting down most days of the week over home cooked, well balanced, portion size appropriate meals. They are going through the drive through or “cooking” (ie microwaving) meals that are loaded in fat, calories, and salt. We say we don’t have time to cook, but somehow manage to watch 40+ hours of TV a week, ironically most likely watching other people cook (Food Network).

The toys have very little to do with health. If the children do not get the kids meals they still are going to be eating the same thing just in the adult portions. The parents need to step up and take responsibility for their children’s health.

Take the toy out of Happy Meals? A lawsuit? This strikes me as nonsense. When did parental responsibility become McDonald’s responsibility? Surely CSPI could find something better to do with their time & money.

For all of you above who are minimizing the magnitude of the real problem (corporations using well-documented psychological techniques to program children to nag their parents for heavily advertised “food” products with toy and cartoon tie-ins), I say that you are becoming tools of these same corporations. Yes, blame the parents–that’s the answer. And blame fat people for being fat. They should just “eat less”. If this were as simple as it sounds, we wouldn’t have these problems to begin with.

My children are all grown, and I didn’t let them nag me for toys or food, but that was a different time and a different culture. I was home full-time, grew up learning to cook, and there were only a handful of fast-food outlets anywhere near our suburban home. Eating at such places was still an occasional “treat” to give Mom a break from cooking.

The parents you refer to are now young enough to have been brought up in the current culture. They see nothing wrong with giving children a can of soda at any time of day. They think there is nothing to offer for breakfast but boxed cereal or pop-tarts. They think that their children will be “left out” if they do not have the products associated with the child’s “favorite shows”. They think TV is an essential home appliance. I could go on for some time, but the point is that these parents have been programmed by the same ad industry to respond this way.

Leah has it right in her comments.

This is absolutely ridiculous. McDonald’s has every right to give out toys if they so choose. Maybe if parents were not making McDonald’s part of their weekly (or daily) routine, their children would not be so pestering about getting a Happy Meal. As a child, I understood that going to McDonald’s was a special treat, not something that happened all the time. Parents need to take responsibility for their children’s diet and teach their children about making wise food choices. Step it up parents, and take full responsibility for your child and what they eat.

Dear Parents,
Please be a PARENT, and don’t give in to your child when they beg and whine. If you want to take them to McDonalds and you don’t want them to have a Happy Meal, you are the boss. Children need to learn that the word No means, No, the first time. By allowing your child to beat you down by whining till they get what they want, you are creating a lifetime of problems for your child and you.
Have you thought about limiting your trips to McDonalds and using Happy Meals as a reward for their achievements? Children who are given everything they want without working for it will have a very hard life ahead of them. Take a parenting class or two, you will be glad you did.
Mom of two. Grandmother to many…

Re: personal responsibility — why have roads, painted road lines, stop lights, sidewalks and crosswalks? We never used to — we just self organized. Why don’t parents just take responsibility to safely guide their children across traffic that is uncontrolled and going in 20 directions? Because mankind has found that as a society becomes more complex and more people live together, it is beneficial to work together to limit our choices, such as our freedom to drive or walk wherever & however we want, in order to benefit the masses while protecting the rights of the vulnerable (eg. pedestrians).

Here’s a great quote from David Katz on it: “W)e…are persuaded and seduced by marketing… Does it really help you sleep better at night knowing your Big Brother lives on Madison Avenue, rather than Pennsylvania Avenue?” David Katz, http://www.davidkatzmd.com/admin/archives/soda%20and%20snow.Times.4-10-09.doc

Since I’ve seen this action by children under ages of 6 pester parents for Happy Meals for the toys, I’m very happy that “SOMEONE” finally decided to do something about it !!! My daughter has a son whom is now 10, who gave her fits because he wanted whatever toy was being given in “Meals” and she did not want him to have them. It is still sometimes an issue. There have been many times in past that one or the other of them were angry, ( really ! Angry!! ) because he didn’t get his choice of what to eat or where. It was a real dragdown everytime we wanted to eat, for him to throw a fit and scream and cry and kick his feet due to his father letting him have them whenever they were together on visitation. Then she would have to put up with it from their son, well she didn’t put up with it, she did something about it, but not everyone can do therapy or afford it. Hopefully CSPI will kick their butts.

For all of you who support parents in your comments THANK YOU. It is very hard to raise a child when it seems like the whole world is against your efforts to raise them healthfully.

I dealt with this by telling my children that if we went to the fast food place, I would be buying their food a la carte, and they would not be getting the toy. I told them that if they were feeling the need for a new toy, that we could talk about how to deal with that separately from our food decision. I told them that the fast food company gives out the toys because the food isn’t actually very good, and if it didn’t have the toy, fewer people would choose to buy it. (If a restaurant has to give out toys to get you to buy their food, the food can’t really be very good!) Because they were exposed to good food, they knew this was true. Given the choice, they always decided against fast food.

In addition, I did the research and compared a happy meal to a bowl of raisin bran with milk and a glass of orange juice. The “breakfast” had a similar amount of protein and other “good” stuff, and a significantly smaller amount of fat, salt, sugar, and other “bad” stuff. Thus I never felt guilty when, on busy days, we stayed home and had a bowl of cereal instead of grabbing a burger.

If we allow the food-and-a-toy thing to continue, then we also have to invest significant effort and money (at least as much as the fast food companies spend on advertising) into teaching moms and kids about how this kind of marketing works and how moms can resist it, as well as ideas for fast, inexpensive, healthy meals at home.

The same people that cry “be a parent and say no” are the ones that don’t believe marketing influences them. After 10 years as a marketing executive I can assure you it influences EVERYONE, myself included. I can also assure you that “its the parents fault” is very much the cornerstone of the PR efforts of these corporations. Alot more goes into marketing than just ads and promotions.

That said, who the hell is CSPI to sue McDonalds? They have no grounds and have been publicity hounds since their inception. Their vegetarian agenda is as transparent as happy meal toys and they are directly responsible for the increased use of vegetable oil trans fats for frying due to their attacks on animal fat. (Of course because animal fat is mostly saturated just like…ohhh… breast milk). It saddens me to know that CSPI is the only contrary voice being heard in DC. They are so easily discredited. Heart attack on a plate? Gimmie a break.

@ Lisa
Yes! Parents should be SUPPORTED to do the right thing, rather than society throwing roadblocks at them every step of the way.

Regulating toy/fast food marketing does not take away anyone’s freedom of choice to buy toys or fast food.

This food-related personal responsibility vs. policy/regulation argument has been very well discussed in numerous reports (Brian Wansink, Yale’s Rudd Center, and on and on) and it is clear that our marketplace is way underregulated IF we want to battle the obesity problem at its true source. If Registered Dietitians are more likely to make unhealthy choices when in an environment of unhealthy choices, then education and will power and responsibility are not enough.

The wise use of regulation can be a very good thing.

Well, it is about time. Let’s see just how many little tikes still want to eat if there is no prize in the bottom of the box.

Ooooh. This gets me sooo steamed! As a mother of two small boys, one of whom seems to not eat anything, I am constantly trying to keep them from fast food advertising. I try to make most of our foods from scratch. But my kids are little, soon to be three and soon to be one.
There will come a time when my sons are spending their time at school and watching TV other than portioned out Nick Jr (no commercials) and then things will change. I wish I could control their exposure forever. Maybe perhaps this will become a frenzy of national media? Then by the time my children are old enough to fall prey to advertisements then there won’t be as many of them around.
May we all be so lucky.

My 7 year old will tell this to anyone who mentions it or asks, and it is the gospel truth in our family: “Mommy doesn’t eat at McDonald’s.” And I haven’t for years, though (because?) cheeseburgers are my absolute favorite. Means anyone riding in my car or living under my roof doesn’t either. Simple.

Wow. I get so tired of the holier-than-thou attitude of so many. I’m glad you’re such a perfect parent –for the rest of us, who hate making every meal out a fight, thank god someone is going after the toys in fast food meals! What is so horrible about making it easier for parents to feed their kids better food? Why not force McDonalds to create a kids meal that kids actually want to eat, rather than just putting a toy in it?

Why do we think its okay for corporations to create a society in which people pay money to become increasingly unhealthy and then pay more money to corporations that produce the drugs that might save us? Is that really the kind of world you want to live in?

[...] Nestle (rien avoir avec le groupe alimentaire) fournit cette information dans cet article « CSPI to McDonald’s: take toys out of Happy Meals, or else! [...]

Why can’t my kid have a toy AND a less health-harming meal? It seems to me CSPI is making it about the toy when they should just focus on the meal.

It makes me think though. Why do we have to be regulated in this country? From our banking industry to our happy meals. Probably because when left on their own, Americans typically take the easier choice even though it’s the worst choice. Does that make it ok for the government or anyone to regulate our choices though?

Jenny, I’m with you on the no McDonald’s (or other fast-food joints, for that matter). As a parent, I completely agree that parents need to step up and BE THE PARENTS. I decide what my children eat while they are under my roof. Period. I don’t understand Renee’s issue with parents who don’t do fast food – just because we don’t patronize McDonald’s doesn’t mean we don’t fight over dinner. Why would you think that? I do agree with her last paragraph – it doens’t make sense to subsidize the cheap calories and then turn around and pay for medical fixes to the problems those cheap calories cause.

I also agree with Anthro about the bigger problem. And no, that’s not contradictory to my above statement that parents should be parents. Everyone should take full responsibility for what they have authority over – parents over their children AND corporations over their marketing, products, business practices, etc. It would be much less of a struggle for all of us if our children weren’t constantly bombarded with marketing aimed directly at getting them to pester their parents for things they don’t need, and worse, things are detrimental to their health, like a Happy Meal.

There are a great many people out there (not visiting Marion’s blog, I’m sure) who truly need education regarding food, as well as advertising. As Anthro says, there is a whole generation of people who think it’s perfectly fine for their children to have a soda for breakfast. That’s a huge problem. Will taking the toys out of Happy Meals result in less soda for breakfast? Maybe, maybe not – but it brings more attention to the nutritional quality (or lack thereof) of the meal in question, and the practice of marketing it to children, and that’s definitely a good thing.

Eric — you’re sort of right. If McDonalds only included the toy with Happy-er Meals (no pop, no fries, etc) then more of those would sell than the Happy-less Meal (pop, fries) without a toy. Sesame Street has done some research on this. Check out http://www.reversechildhoodobesity.org/webinars for June 23, 2010 webinar on marketing and food.

Nonetheless, it would be nice for parents to not have to be pestered AT ALL to go to McDonalds and then have to buy a kids meal in order to get the toy. If they could just buy the toy alone that might be semi-okay.

[...] Nestle’s Food Politics blog makes for very interesting reading on this topic, especially the reader responses, so much [...]

[...] at Food Politics, Marion Nestle has shared a copy of the CSPI letter, if you want to read the entire [...]

Anthro, I AM the parent. I have little kids and medium sized kids. And sometimes we do go out to McDonalds (well, not really, we usually hit Arby’s.) And you know what? They ask for the meal, and I tell them no, do they want X sandwich or Y sandwich. And that’s it.

If you need a JUDGE to rule that McD’s must get rid of toys because that’s the only way you can avoid giving your child a Happy Meal, I’m sorry, but you have a problem. If you don’t want a fight over a meal, but are worried about the nutritional quality of McD’s happy meals – what the heck are you doing at McD’s? Getting rid of the toy isn’t going to change the nutritional content of the food.

I am certainly NOT a perfect parent. I think an average parent could NOT buy their kid a happy meal if they didn’t want their kid to have a happy meal.