NOT HAPPY ABOUT HAPPY MEALS
If a restaurant has to give out toys to get you to buy their food, the food can’t really be very good! ~Pauline, commenting on Food Politics.com
Someone is getting serious about holding fast food’s feet to the fire when it comes to marketing to children. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a non-profit nutrition advocacy group, has written a letter to McDonald’s telling them to stop selling toys with happy meals or face a lawsuit. CSPI contends that such practices are illegal, deceptive practices that prey on children unable to comprehend the implications of being marketed to.
Is it McDonald’s problem/fault/concern that too many parents are having trouble saying “No” to their children who, under advertising’s influence, demand Happy Meals? Who takes them to McDonald’s in the first place? Don’t parents educate their own children about the wiles of compelling marketing?
Litigation is a last-ditch and often desperate effort at changing behavior. It will be interesting to see how strenuous are McDonald’s attempts to work with CSPI to avoid allowing the courts to pass a final decision on their right to advertise any way they want. They will certainly use the First Amendment to protect their bottom line interests.
The problem is that they are effective: they’ve targeted their market and the kid demographic is hounding parents for food that is not good to eat. Parents – maybe one parent and not the other, maybe those worn out from the pressures of daily life seeking one less battleground – succumb to the Pester Factor (yes that is a real concept in food marketing), and end up buying empty food to feed their kids while toy chests and young bodies in every city and town fill to overflowing. And what is that teaching them?
Marion Nestle’s Food Politics blog makes for very interesting reading on this topic, especially the reader responses, so much that I am moved to highlight one here. Pauline comments:
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. . . . 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.
REAL HAPPINESS AT MEALTIME
Giving toys to children at mealtime does send a skewed message. Playtime is important in the development of a child. And so is mealtime. But meals are for eating, and eating is for nourishment. If your child is toy-deprived, then perhaps you should spend some hard-earned dollars in the toy department.
When feeding your family, chose a meal that fulfills a meal’s true purpose rather than the purpose of play. By teaching your children the value of eating a variety of real foods, prepared in many different ways – because that is what cooking is about – you are teaching them skills that will serve them for a lifetime, giving them the best chance for good health and long life. Who wouldn’t want that for their kids? To paraphrase someone more astute than I, no one ever regretted not eating fast food.
QUICK ASIAN HAPPINESS (WITH A LITTLE LEFTOVERS)
The heat of the New York City summer sent me home with a yen for an Asian Salad for the next day’s working lunch with a colleague. I had meant to stop by the market for some hoisin sauce to marinate some leftover chicken, but the cool of the bus surrounded me and the comfort of the seat I had snagged in the crush of rush hour conspired to keep me from getting off at the mid-town stop. So on the bus I remained, uptown I sailed – book in my lap – and came home to what was was already in my pantry.
Today’s preparation is for a simple Asian Salad with a dressing made with nothing more than sesame oil, soy sauce and a squirt of fresh lime. Fresh leaf lettuce, cilantro leaves, grated carrot, chopped green onion, a sliced mushroom, a ripe avocado and tomato slices. Toss the vegs with the dressing, top with leftover sliced chicken from the night before – or not, for a vegan counterpart – and sprinkle with black sesame seeds.
This is a gorgeous-looking salad that can be rustled up in no time. Truth is, I was actually out of green onions and mushrooms, and forgot about the lime juice. My colleague was amazed at what could be so tasty with so little effort, as he watched me prepare it. We made iced tea with green and wild berry tea leaves followed with a bowl of fresh fruit and (the last of the) Lemon Mousse for dessert. It was a true embodiment of the working lunch, and it surely worked for us as we chatted business throughout.
A summer salad to beat the heat. Why not give it a try and tell me what you think? Easy, no?
Now it happens, right after I finally convince my daughter that we don’t need the toy and she can have nuggets instead. I’d never be able to sell raisin bran for an alternative, maybe peanut butter cap’n crunch but definitely not raisin bran. It’s good advice though.
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Just about anything is better than fast food, even sugary cereal. At least you don’t get the fat or the salt. Or the fluorescent lighting. Thanks for taking the time to visit. I’d love to sponsor you making a fabulous meal for your new man. You have the traffic I’d kill for. Maybe you have an idea that would work for both of us. Cap’n Crunch doesn’t count, though. How about getting those 15 kids together for a taco party?