Information about the Aspen Ideas Festival is here. I am scheduled for a session, The American Wellness Paradox, currently scheduled from 11:00-11:50 a.m., at the East Lawn Tent. This will be a discussion with senior HHS policy advisor, Calley Means. Here’s the blurb on it: “Americans are spending more than ever on healthcare, supplements, wellness trends, and “clean eating,” yet rates of chronic disease and metabolic illness continue to climb. As skepticism fuels the rise of movements like MAHA, debates over what Americans should eat have become deeply cultural, political, and economic. Two influential voices with sharply different perspectives on nutrition and food science explore how food systems, farming practices, consumer culture, and the wellness industry collided to create one of the defining public health debates of our time.”
by Marion Nestle
Jul
23
2013
Taco Bell giving up on kids meals and toys
USA Today announces that Taco Bell will no longer be offering kids meals with toys or, for that matter, kids meals at all.
How come? “The future of Taco Bell is not about kids meals,” says Taco Bell CEO Greg Creed. “This is about positioning the brand for Millennials.”
Kids meals bring parents into fast food places. The article is full of interesting facts:
- The industry sells more than 1.2 billion kids’s meal annually in the U.S.
- Fast-food chains spend about $580 million annually marketing to children under age 12.
- Of the $580 million, about $340 million is spent on producing and licensing toys.
Why is Taco Bell doing this? Pressures about childhood obesity, of course, but also:
- Kids meals account for only 0.05% of Taco Bell’s overall sales.
- The non-kids’ meal will cost more. The current meal costs about $2.84. The a la carte meal will go to $3.17.
Will kids want to eat at Taco Bell with no toy as an incentive? I can’t wait to find out.
