Happy Meals banned in San Francisco!

K-9 · 05-11-2010 07:20AM #1

(Reuters) - San Francisco has become the first major U.S. city to pass a law that cracks down on the popular practice of giving away free toys with unhealthy restaurant meals for children.

San Francisco's Board of Supervisors passed the law on Tuesday on a veto-proof 8-to-3 vote. It takes effect on December 1, 2011.

The law, like an ordinance passed earlier this year in nearby Santa Clara County, would require that restaurant kids' meals meet certain nutritional standards before they could be sold with toys.

Opponents of the law include the National Restaurant Association and McDonald's Corp, which used its now wildly popular Happy Meal to pioneer the use of free toys to market directly to children.

"We are extremely disappointed with today's decision. It's not what our customers want, nor is it something they asked for," McDonald's spokeswoman Danya Proud said in a statement.

"Getting a toy with a kid's meal is just one part of a fun, family experience at McDonald's," Proud said.

The San Francisco law would allow toys to be given away with kids' meals that have less than 600 calories, contain fruits and vegetables, and include beverages without excessive fat or sugar.

Backers of the ordinance say it aims to promote healthy eating habits while combating childhood obesity.

"Our children are sick. Rates of obesity in San Francisco are disturbingly high, especially among children of color," said San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar, who sponsored the measure.

"This is a challenge to the restaurant industry to think about children's health first and join the wide range of local restaurants that have already made this commitment," Mar said.

I wonder will it make any difference to obesity levels? 15% of American children are over weight or obese.

The practice of bundling toys in Happy Meals seems quite the lucrative business for McDonalds and the fast food industry in general and surely adds to their attractiveness.

In 2006, the latest year for which data is available, fast-food companies led by McDonald's spent more than $520 million on advertising and toys to promote meals for children, according to a U.S. Federal Trade Commission report.
When the efforts of other food and beverage companies were included, promotional spending aimed at children topped $1.6 billion.

Nanny State or in the best interest of children?

Overheal · 05-11-2010 07:22AM

Nanny State or in the best interest of children?

who the hell cares: we'll find out the answer in 10 years

But perhaps you'd also like to visit http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/ which i think makes a few interesting points.

05-11-2010 07:25AM

Who wants to be toyed with?

05-11-2010 07:27AM

News flash! millions of Chinese toymakers lose their jobs! :pac:

K-9 · 05-11-2010 07:29AM

Deleted User wrote: »

News flash! millions of Chinese toymakers lose their jobs! :pac:

And Ronald Mc Donald.

K-9 · 05-11-2010 07:33AM

Overheal wrote: »

who the hell cares: we'll find out the answer in 10 years

But perhaps you'd also like to visit http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/ which i think makes a few interesting points.

Well somebody does! :pac:

Cheers for the link, some mad stuff there! Don Draper would be a happy man!

05-11-2010 07:33AM

K-9 wrote: »

And Ronald Mc Donald.

Well, he was always a bit of a clown!

I took my eldest into Mc D's a couple of years ago, he was in a fowl mood and demanded a chicken nugget happy meal, then hated the toy. When we got home the missus asks where we'd been and I said that he went to Mc D's and had a "grumpy meal"

senordingdong · 05-11-2010 08:31AM

Not in favour of anyone banning anything but the likely outcome of this is that McDonalds will start making healthier happy meals rather than lose them altogether.

Terry · 05-11-2010 08:33AM

If you can't say no to your child, then perhaps you should brush up on your parenting skills.
McDonald's should only ever be a treat, and not somewhere for lazy people to take their kids.
This won't change anything. Lazy parents will still be lazy. Fast food places will find a loophole in this law.

Please note that this is not a comment on the post above mine. I'm not calling you a lazy parent, dolanbaker.

PanchoVilla · 05-11-2010 08:36AM

senordingdong wrote: »

Not in favour of anyone banning anything...

Because lead-based paint chips were fúcking tasty!! When I was a kid, there was nothing like chowing down on those delicious lead-based paint chips to keep me going after lunchtime.

senordingdong · 05-11-2010 08:41AM

PanchoVilla wrote: »

Because lead-based paint chips were fúcking tasty!! When I was a kid, there was nothing like chowing down on those delicious lead-based paint chips to keep me going after lunchtime.

You knew full well what I meant.
Stop flame baiting me or I will report you.

K-9 · 05-11-2010 08:42AM

Terry wrote: »

If you can't say no to your child, then perhaps you should brush up on your parenting skills.
McDonald's should only ever be a treat, and not somewhere for lazy people to take their kids.
This won't change anything. Lazy parents will still be lazy. Fast food places will find a loophole in this law.

Please note that this is not a comment on the post above mine. I'm not calling you a lazy parent, dolanbaker.

That was my initial thought on it too, they'll probably find some way around it.

They probably should be shaming the toy companies as well, paying Billions world wide, never mind Disney, Dreamworks etc.

PanchoVilla · 05-11-2010 08:46AM

senordingdong wrote: »

You knew full well what I meant.
Stop flame baiting me or I will report you.

Who's flame baiting? You said you don't think anyone should ban anything and I just pointed out how ridiculous that statement is. Report away.

Mister men · 05-11-2010 08:56AM

"15% of American kids are obese or overweight"....? Surely it's more than that. Went to disneyland with the family last year and i'd say it was closer to 50% fat kids.

PanchoVilla · 05-11-2010 09:04AM

Mister men wrote: »

"15% of American kids are obese or overweight"....? Surely it's more than that. Went to disneyland with the family last year and i'd say it was closer to 50% fat kids.

Poor kids don't go to Disneyland. Also, you probably tend to notice fat kids more than skinny kids. I bet if you actually observed the kids going through the gates and tallied who was visibly obese you'd have much less than 50%. I'd say there are just as many obese kids, if not more, in Ireland.

Edit: A study of overweight and obese children in RoI and NI in 2002.

Overall, almost one in four boys (23% RoI and NI) and over one in four girls (28% RoI, 25% NI) were either overweight or obese. In RoI, the highest prevalence of overweight was among 13 year old girls (32%) and obesity among 7 year old girls (11%).

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1950090/

pickarooney · 05-11-2010 09:30AM

Terry wrote: »

If you can't say no to your child, then perhaps you should brush up on your parenting skills.
McDonald's should only ever be a treat, and not somewhere for lazy people to take their kids.

These two sentences are contradictory to me. Unhealthy food should never be used as a reward. That's not good parenting.

05-11-2010 09:41AM

Deleted User wrote: »

I took my eldest into Mc D's a couple of years ago, he was in a fowl mood and demanded a chicken nugget happy meal, then hated the toy. When we got home the missus asks where we'd been and I said that he went to Mc D's and had a "grumpy meal"

I see what you did there! :pac:

Anyway I don't know if this will make a difference. Healthy happy meal plus toy plus "can I have a couple hamburgers for him/her as well"...
Or they can buy the toy separately as well

Burkatron · 05-11-2010 09:55AM

Another case of a Nanny state who instead of deal with the root cause i.e the lazy parents, penalise a couple of industries! If a kid is obese without medical reasoning it should be seen as a form of abuse & the parents should be punished the same as if the kid was malnourished!

For once I'm on the side of the fast food industry! They should be fined for shovelling out the **** they serve, not for giving a toy away with it!!!

senordingdong · 05-11-2010 10:01AM

PanchoVilla wrote: »

Who's flame baiting? You said you don't think anyone should ban anything and I just pointed out how ridiculous that statement is. Report away.

Ok, take what I said too litteraly, and I will take what you said litteraly.

No, lead based paint chips shouldn't have been banned.

If people are stupid enough to continue eating them after being made aware of the risks, then that's their perogative.
If they decide they don't want to eat crap that could kill them, then demand would fall and the product would no longer be produced.

Problem solved, without the intervention of a nanny state on the behalf of a lazy, stupid, hysterical public.

Sam Vimes · 05-11-2010 10:13AM

Deleted User wrote: »

I took my eldest into Mc D's a couple of years ago, he was in a fowl mood and demanded a chicken nugget happy meal

Well chicken is the best thing to get for someone in a fowl mood

Naos · 05-11-2010 10:58AM

I don't see the problem here at all.

Kid eats healthy meal.
Kid receives toy as reward, reinforcing healthy meals as a good thing.

Sounds great to me, I'd love if we followed suit.

Snakeblood · 05-11-2010 11:20AM

K-9 wrote: »

Happy Meals Banned in San Francisco

I wonder will it make any difference to obesity levels? 15% of American children are over weight or obese.

The practice of bundling toys in Happy Meals seems quite the lucrative business for McDonalds and the fast food industry in general and surely adds to their attractiveness.

Nanny State or in the best interest of children?

Best interests of children, and everyone. Otherwise it turns the nation into a league of fatties and then into a league of people lying on hospital beds at 25 suffering from diseases they shouldn't have till they're 60, if at all.

amacachi · 05-11-2010 11:23AM

Most likely so that their farts smell nice since all they do over there is walk around sniffing them all day.

Snakeblood · 05-11-2010 11:24AM

Burkatron wrote: »

Another case of a Nanny state who instead of deal with the root cause i.e the lazy parents, penalise a couple of industries! If a kid is obese without medical reasoning it should be seen as a form of abuse & the parents should be punished the same as if the kid was malnourished!

For once I'm on the side of the fast food industry! They should be fined for shovelling out the **** they serve, not for giving a toy away with it!!!

The root cause is that McDonald's make bad food cheap and target it at children. The parents are then trying to stop the kids from getting what looks to them delicious, and comes with a free toy.

Anyone who thinks McDonald's are being unfairly targeted is insane. If they weren't giving garbage to kids in order to get them to pressure their parents to buy more, then maybe there would be a case. But they're spending 520 million on getting Junior to kick up and demand McDonald's.

Greyfox · 05-11-2010 11:27AM

pickarooney wrote: »

These two sentences are contradictory to me. Unhealthy food should never be used as a reward. That's not good parenting.

That's nonsense, so it's wrong to reward a child with a little bit of chocolate? For generations things like chocolate, ice cream, dessert etc have been given as a reward for a child been good, it's called a balanced diet!

Theirs 100% nothing wrong with bringing your kid to mcdonalds just as long as their weekly diet is balanced.

This law is the nanny state taking over again, apparently parents do not have the capability to provide a balanced diet for their kids, if I was a parent I'd find this very insulting

phill106 · 05-11-2010 11:27AM

PanchoVilla wrote: »

Poor kids don't go to Disneyland. Also, you probably tend to notice fat kids more than skinny kids. I bet if you actually observed the kids going through the gates and tallied who was visibly obese you'd have much less than 50%. I'd say there are just as many obese kids, if not more, in Ireland.

Edit: A study of overweight and obese children in RoI and NI in 2002.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1950090/

Assuming the fat kids could fit through the gates...

Snakeblood · 05-11-2010 11:29AM

Greyfox wrote: »

That's nonsense, so it's wrong to reward a child with a little bit of chocolate? For generations things like chocolate, ice cream, dessert etc have been given as a reward for a child been good, it's called a balanced diet!

Theirs 100% nothing wrong with bringing your kid to mcdonalds just as long as their weekly diet is balanced.

This law is the nanny state taking over again, apparently parents do not have the capability to provide a balanced diet for their kids, if I was a parent I'd find this very insulting

Just because something has been done for generations doesn't mean it's right. McDonald's is muck. It has very little nutritional value and is stuffed with salt and sugar. If kids were taught that healthy food was a reward, they'd see healthy food as a reward.

amacachi · 05-11-2010 11:33AM

Greyfox wrote: »

That's nonsense, so it's wrong to reward a child with a little bit of chocolate? For generations things like chocolate, ice cream, dessert etc have been given as a reward for a child been good, it's called a balanced diet!

Theirs 100% nothing wrong with bringing your kid to mcdonalds just as long as their weekly diet is balanced.

This law is the nanny state taking over again, apparently parents do not have the capability to provide a balanced diet for their kids, if I was a parent I'd find this very insulting

Bit different when there wasn't overly-easy access to food the whole time.

AnonoBoy · 05-11-2010 11:39AM

Unhappy Meals more like.......

..........Jesus shoot me now, that was f*cking terrible!

Greyfox · 05-11-2010 11:56AM

Snakeblood wrote: »

Just because something has been done for generations doesn't mean it's right. McDonald's is muck. It has very little nutritional value and is stuffed with salt and sugar. If kids were taught that healthy food was a reward, they'd see healthy food as a reward.

Well if Mcdonalds sold only healty food and a toy their profits would plummit, and that would not be fair on any business! Instead of blaming Mcdonalds we should be blaming the parents who bring them their too often!

liah · 05-11-2010 12:03PM

Quick question: what is it that parents actually have to do these days?

Don't have to watch what your kid is eating, government does it for you. Don't have to watch your kids, government's making everything kid-safe now. Don't have to monitor what movies or videogames they buy, the government makes IDs get checked now. Etcetera, etcetera.

Pretty sure the government's got parenting totally covered at this point. Good to know I wouldn't have to do anything as a parent should I choose to have kids.

Happy Meals banned in San Francisco!

Comments