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09 May, 2006

A Dark Day

Sad news today from the L.A. Times regarding Disney toys in McDonald's Happy Meals:

Disney is not renewing its cross-promotional pact with the fast-food giant, ending the arrangement with this summer's release of "Cars" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." One reason, say multiple high-ranking sources within Disney, is that the company -- which prides itself on being family friendly -- wants to distance itself from fast food and its links to the epidemic of childhood obesity.

I'll be honest. I rarely eat at McDonald's if there isn't a cool toy to be had or a Monopoly game to be played. I love Happy Meals, but without Disney toys, I really can't see consuming them, especially when I can get a Jr Bacon Cheeseburger and a baked potato from Wendy's for $2.

The article goes on to speculate whether movie studios distancing themselves from Mickey-D's will change what they sell to kids. I also learned that a Happy Meal with a cheeseburger, small fries and Sprite totals 670 calories, with 26 grams of fat and 4.5 grams of trans fat. No one should feed that to their children, regardless of the cool toy that comes in the box.

I'm impressed with Disney for taking this step... now if we could only get those damn mini McDonald's out of the theme parks!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What I see regularly, everywhere I go, fast food or otherwise, are parents REQUIRING their children to eat a quota of food that they don't want. OMG! Do they not see? The kid wants to play, and they say, "not until you eat more fries." Now maybe this is because they don't want the child to be hungry later ... but geez! Force feeding fries!

Janette said...

I confess to buying Happy Meals only for the toys! Wait - that should read "I BOUGHT Happy Meals only for the DISNEY toys." The other toys usually suck.

Jeez, no Disney toys AND no cookie in the Happy Meal = No McDonalds for me.

Except maybe for the occasional Coke. I don't usually drink soda but McDonalds Coca-Cola is so much better than anywhere else. I usually stop for just a soda once a week.