Dawn
Level 4
Reputation: 18
(Likers: 7 / Critics: 2)
Group: Members
Posts: 2,708
Joined: Aug 19, 2006
|
Activist Group Threatens Lawsuit Unless Happy Meal Toys Banned
June 22, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Taking the Santa Clara County, Calif. Happy Meal toy ban to the national level, a radical consumer activist group is threatening to sue McDonald’s if it continues to include toys in kids meals.
“McDonald’s is the stranger in the playground handing out candy to children,” said Center for Science in the Public Interest’s (CSPI) litigation director Stephen Gardner. “McDonald’s use of toys undercuts parental authority and exploits young children’s developmental immaturity—all this to induce children to prefer foods that may harm their health. It’s a creepy and predatory practice that warrants an injunction.”
Gardner couldn’t be more wrong in his tasteless attempt to equate McDonald’s with pedophiles. There are no “strangers” handing out Happy Meals to kids on the playground or at any McDonald’s franchise across the nation. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and legal guardians are making conscious decisions to purchase Happy Meals for their children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews.
Some may buy Happy Meals as an occasional reward for good behavior, good grades, scoring the winning goal or just because they know their kids will enjoy a special treat. There are few, if any, parents who consider Happy Meals a staple in their children’s diets and it’s ridiculous to even think that an occasional Happy Meal will cause children to plump-up and add to the list of victims claimed by the so-called obesity “epidemic.”
According to a recent report by Creative Consumer Concepts (C3), statistics show that the CSPI’s claim that Happy Meals are adversely affecting children’s health do not add up:
■[K]ids eat at a restaurant 2.5 times a month.
■In an average 30 day month, there are 150 meal occasions.
■If kids are only going to restaurants 2-3 times a month, they account for only 2 percent of all meal occasions.
“Of the 24 possible Happy Meal combinations that McDonald’s describes on its web site, all exceed 430 calories (430 is one-third of the 1,300- calorie recommended daily intake for children 4 to 8 years old),” states the CSPI press release. Okay, but find us a kid who eats a Happy Meal every day!
Interestingly, the C3 report notes that in the Cupertino Calif. School District, “the average school lunch for elementary school kids has approximately 700 calories.” You can bet there are countless other school lunches being served across the country that are equal to or greater than 700 calories.
The CSPI press release proceeds to spotlight a parent who claims she’s been victimized by the “slick” marketing of McDonald’s and is helpless to prevent her children from being lured in to the greedy arms of a burger-toting clown.
“McDonald’s makes my job as a parent more difficult,” said Sheila Nesbitt, 36, a project manager from Champlin, MN, and a parent of a six-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl. “They market cheap toys that appeal to kids and it works. My kids always want to go to McDonald’s because of the toys. I try my best to educate my kids about healthy eating but it’s hard when I am competing against the allure of a new Shrek toy.”
Boo-hoo! Poor Mrs. Nesbitt can’t control her kids and blames it on McDonald’s versus assuming personal responsibility for her apparent lack of parental control skills. And, the CSPI has already taken our beef with parents like Nesbitt in to consideration as they make sure their case against McDonald’s is bullet-proof.
“I’m sure that industry’s defenders will blame parents for not saying ‘no’ to their children,” states CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson. “Parents do bear much of the responsibility, but multi-billion-dollar corporations make parents’ job nearly impossible by giving away toys and bombarding kids with slick advertising.”
CSPI has served notice to McDonald’s that its “toy-related promotions violate state consumer protection laws in Massachusetts, Texas, the District of Columbia, New Jersey, and California.” McDonald’s has 30 days to cease and desist from including toys in Happy Meals before a lawsuit is filed by the CPSI
|
|
| Posted Jun 22, 2010, 10:34 pm |
|
Ignored by: 2
|
|
|
Dawn
Level 4
Reputation: 18
(Likers: 7 / Critics: 2)
Group: Members
Posts: 2,708
Joined: Aug 19, 2006
|
Most of my children have never been inside a McDonald's or any other fast food restaurant. What a moron asking the government to help because they can not take care of their own children.
|
|
| Posted Jun 22, 2010, 10:36 pm |
|
Ignored by: 2
|
|
|
Alexandria
Level 4
Reputation: 31
(Likers: 4 / Critics: 2)
Group: Members
Posts: 2,130
Joined: Feb 11, 2010
|
Pretty cheesy blaming McDonald's for her own inadequacies as a parent.
|
|
| Posted Jun 22, 2010, 11:23 pm |
|
Ignored by: 2
|
|
|
SpiritusSanctus
Level 5
Reputation: 1405
(Likers: 103 / Critics: 63)
Group: Members
Posts: 4,716
Joined: May 21, 2010
|
I think if a lawsuit is filed, it will be one of the dumbest ones ever. Maybe if they had proof McDonald's was trying to be a fast-food pedophile, but they don't. I think the judge will end up laughing in their face and dismissing the case before very long. I'll admit I'm no fan of McDonald's and its goofy clown (I also don't like that McDonald's supports gay marriage) but that is a ridiculous reason to file a lawsuit. That woman sounds as if she is mad that she has to spend money on a toy for her kids so she blames the restraunt to try and get money for something that is her fault. She could put her foot down and say no to eating at McDonald's if she really wanted to. What a joke. What McDonald's is doing isn't much different than what Burger King is doing, the only difference being that McDonald's advertises toys more.
|
.........................
"The Novus Ordo Missae, even when said with piety and respect for the liturgical rules, is impregnated with the spirit of Protestantism...it bears within it a poison harmful to the Faith". -Marcel LeFebvre, founder of SSPX
|
| Posted Jun 22, 2010, 11:51 pm |
|
Ignored by: 5
|
|
|
Dawn
Level 4
Reputation: 18
(Likers: 7 / Critics: 2)
Group: Members
Posts: 2,708
Joined: Aug 19, 2006
|
What about the new Executive order from Obama? It is on Lifestyle Behaviour Modification. Even monitors how much time we spend on the sofa.
|
|
| Posted Jun 23, 2010, 12:25 am |
|
Ignored by: 2
|
|
|
|
|
Alexandria
Level 4
Reputation: 31
(Likers: 4 / Critics: 2)
Group: Members
Posts: 2,130
Joined: Feb 11, 2010
|
What are you talking about?
|
|
| Posted Jun 23, 2010, 12:26 am |
|
Ignored by: 2
|
|
|
|
|
Alexandria
Level 4
Reputation: 31
(Likers: 4 / Critics: 2)
Group: Members
Posts: 2,130
Joined: Feb 11, 2010
|
Now I'm really sick.
|
|
| Posted Jun 23, 2010, 2:55 am |
|
Ignored by: 2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
