OT - How did we survive before watchgroups

Submitted by Blazefire on

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Diet/mcdonalds-threatened-lawsuit-marketing-toys-happy-meals/story?id=10982614

Welcome to my nightmare. I always, always, ALWAYS knew that one day "consumer advocacy" and "watchdog" groups would set upon the most pure things in the world in the name of protecting us, and today, it is true.

Evidently McDonald's is evil and is intentionally TRYING to make kids fat by offering happy meals with toys in them. You know, since so many 8 year olds drive themselves out to McD's when they want a little Nosh and fork over some cash.

Parents of America! If your kid is a lard-ass, there is somebody to blame, and it's not the goddamn golden arches! Go to hell and get yourselves AWAY from my freakin' childhood. A happy meal with a toy is something for the kid to beg for, and the parent to say "no".

A buncha freakin' zombies out there. Not dead, but definitely not alive. At least not if having an ounce of self respect is required.

MGoBoard
Recruiting
McDonalds
Happy Meals
Toys
My Childhood - It hurts

Arizona Blue

June 22nd, 2010 at 5:57 PM ^

I love mcdonalds. I will never stop going to mcdonalds. After i watched super size me I was hungry for mcdonalds and actually drove to get a big mac.  Loyalty.

Joined: 06/17/2009

MGoPoints: 2281

Tim Waymen

June 22nd, 2010 at 6:04 PM ^

McDonald's has included those ridiculous toys in happy meals since at least the 80s.  I know that because I've been jealous of kids who eat non-kosher food for as long as I can remember.  So if happy meal toys have been around forever, how come childhood obesity and T2DM have become huge problems in the past 10 years, as opposed to 20-25 years ago?  Did the toys get better (and even more unfair)?  Has the public's memory of McDonald's blatant product placement in Mac & Me faded as we move further and further away from 1988?  Or has parenting gotten so awful to the point that we now have interest groups to deflect some of the blame for them?

Okay fine, maybe McDonald's should be a little more forthcoming about its unhealthy foods, but they have provided healthier alternatives.  Plus they donated Ronald McDonald House near Markley, even though how that clown didn't give me nightmares as a kid is beyond me.  Ronald McDonald is one scary fucker.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 1973

bjk

June 22nd, 2010 at 6:54 PM ^

GHW Bush's 1990 appointment to head the FDA, has made a cause out of this. His background is in pediatrics. He lead the effort for more effective food labelling in the '90's. He argues that combinations of fat and sugar or fat and salt are not only deceptively flavorful, but actually physically addictive. Grocery-store items were typically crafted for maximum addictive content before clearer labelling laws made fat, sugar and salt easier to spot. Not only is it cheaper for corporations to create less nutritious food products this way, but the addictiveness increases repeat business. With better labelling in grocery stores, the aggressive peddling of salt-fat/sugar-fat combinations moved to fast food restaurants in the '90's. Statistics show a major spike in childhood obesity, diabetes and associated medical costs in the same time-frame. Kessler argues that the costs of socially irresponsible marketing are born not just by the unwitting addicts but by society as a whole. His book on the subject is The End of Overeating. 59-minute Kessler video here (Kessler's bit starts around 4:00). The lawsuit lampooned here may not be the way out of this clash of corporate profit-making and social well-being, but the health costs of fast-food practices are increasing and can not be sustained indefinitely. It would be interesting to hear the take on the subject of pot or other established forms of government prohibition from those with a libertarian view on manipulative or predatory marketing.

Joined: 11/26/2009

MGoPoints: 3993

dennisblundon

June 22nd, 2010 at 6:10 PM ^

The reason childhood obesity is more prevalent today as opposed to thirty years ago is not because McDonalds puts toys in happy meals. It is because today both parents generally have to work to make ends meet. So mom isn't at home cooking dinner waiting for dad to walk through the door but rather out humping her own 9 to 5 job. So maybe, just maybe, out of conveinence the family swings through McD's drive through thus leading to little Timmy's fat ass.

Joined: 02/23/2010

MGoPoints: 9613

MGoShoe

June 22nd, 2010 at 7:09 PM ^

....the logic of most of these arguments is that they ignore the possibility of the simultaneous existence of crappy parents and corporate malfefactors.

The truth is one enables the other and vice versa.

Joined: 04/23/2009

MGoPoints: 20734

M-Wolverine

June 22nd, 2010 at 8:06 PM ^

We have the following Cheerleading thread, people blaming fast food for the countries problems here (the topic, not the people). I expect a Martial Arts thread before the night is done. Anyway, with the economy the way it is, I always wonder where all these Watchdog groups get their funding. We can't find the capital to employ our population, but there's always money to fund think tanks to tell us how to act. And the people doing the telling never seem to be volunteering their services. Nice gig if you can get it.

Joined: 10/04/2009

MGoPoints: 42190