McDonalds Needs ‘Sad Meals’ to Help Powerless Parents

McDonald’s Happy Meals are under attack. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has threatened to sue the restaurant chain if they continue to include toys in Happy Meals because a) toys lead to obesity and b) parents can’t tell their children no.

Yes, that’s correct, CSPI claims it is too difficult for a parent to tell their kid “no” to a Happy Meal.

“Multi-billion-dollar corporations make parents’ job nearly impossible by giving away toys and bombarding kids with slick advertising.”

Similarly, research from the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity found parents incapable of making healthy food selection for kids at grocery stores and concluded that government should “regulate and curtail” the use of marketing unhealthy foods with popular cartoon characters.

Come on people, children don’t grocery shop alone or drive themselves to McDonald’s – they go with parents who decide what and when they eat. It’s ludicrous to imply parents can’t say “no” because of clever marketing or toys. Parents don’t need a nanny state to help them raise their kids.

For the record, I liked Happy Meal toys as a child and plan on letting my future kids enjoy them – and not because the Hamburgler tricked me.