A US consumer group has threatened legal action against the fast food company McDonald’s if it does not stop using toys to promote its “junk food” Happy Meals: the group says using unfair and deceptive marketing to “lure small children” is illegal under consumer protection laws in various states of the US.
The nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) announced on Tuesday that it had served McDonald’s with a 30-day notice of its intention to sue. Giving such notice is a legal requirement under several states in which the group might bring the lawsuit, they said in a statement. The lawsuit will go ahead if the company does not agree within 30 days to stop its toy-related promotions.
Stephen Gardner, litigation director for CSPI, told the press that:
“McDonald’s is the stranger in the playground handing out candy to children.”
He said the way the fast food company uses toys exploits the fact children are developmentally immature and undermines the authority of parents.
“All this to induce children to prefer foods that may harm their health. It’s a creepy and predatory practice that warrants an injunction,” he added.
In CSPI’s notice letter addressed to Jim Skinner, vice chairman, CEO, and president of McDonald’s, and to Jan Fields, the corporation’s USA president, Gardner wrote that:
“McDonald’s marketing has the effect of conscripting America’s children into an unpaid drone army of word-of-mouth marketers, causing them to pester their parents to bring them to McDonald’s.”
The letter goes on to state that McDonald’s use of toys to promote its food products is violating state consumer protection laws in Massachusetts, Texas, the District of Columbia, New Jersey, and California, and that the company has 30 days to agree to stop the practice before a suit is filed.
One issue that CSPI raised in yesterday’s statement was the apparent mismatch between what is implied in McDonald’s advertising and what happens when food is actually purchased. For example, McDonald’s current promotion includes toys related to Dreamworks’ latest Shrek movie, and advertises Happy Meals containing Apple Dippers and low fat milk. But according to a CSPI study, when children or parents actually place their order, 93 per cent of the time they are given french fries and sugary soft drinks.
The CSPI comments that as part of a pledge to an industry-funded self-regulatory group, in 2007 McDonald’s promised to stop targeting children with adverts for meals with more than 600 calories and more than a certain proportion of fat and sugar. They said this explains the “brief glimpses” of Apple Dippers and low fat milk as part of a 4-piece Chicken McNuggets Happy Meal or a Hamburger Happy Meal in adverts directed at children, however, the consumer group points out, toys are included in all Happy Meals, regardless of nutrition.
The CSPI said that getting children used to eating burgers, fries and soda “puts them at greater risk of developing obesity, diabetes, or other diet-related diseases over the course of their lifetimes”.
A Happy Meal comprising cheeseburger, french fries, and a Sprite has 640 calories and 7 grams of fat (that’s half of the recommended daily intake for 4 to 8-year olds), 0.9 g of sodium and 35 g of sugar (about 2 days’ worth).
And to promote the meal to children, it comes with a free toy representing a character from an array of children’s favorite movies, including Shrek, Star Wars, iCarly, Night at the Museum, and others, stressed the consumer group.
“McDonald’s use of these techniques raises troubling questions, for health professionals, parents, and policy makers,” Kathryn Montgomery, Professor of communication at American University in Washington DC, said in a statement.
Montgomery, an expert on how media influences children, said there is scientific evidence that young, and even older, children do not understand how marketing is designed to influence them.
McDonald’s has expressed strong objection to CPSI’s claims, saying the group has misrepresented the food they sell and how they market it.
The company’s vice president of communications, William Whitman, said in a statement quoted by WebMD that since 2008, Americans have bought 100 million Happy Meals that include Apple Dippers, and in 2009 they bought 31 million gallons of milk, three times what they bought in 2004.
He pointed out that McDonald’s is a member of the Council for Better Business Bureau’s voluntary campaign for children’s well-being and that Happy Meals are “right-sized for kids”, and offer “wholesome food and toys of the highest quality and safety”.
“Getting a toy is just one part of a fun, family experience at McDonald’s,” said Whitman.
However, Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the CSPI describes the practice of tempting kids with toys as “inherently deceptive”, regardless of the nutritional value of what is being marketed.
He said the people in the food industry who defend this practice often blame parents for not saying “no” to their children, and while parents do bear much of the responsibility for what their children eat, he added that:
“Multi-billion-dollar corporations make parents’ job nearly impossible by giving away toys and bombarding kids with slick advertising.”
Mother of two children under 8, Sheila Nesbitt, a project manager from Champlin, Minnesota, agrees.
“McDonald’s makes my job as a parent more difficult, Nesbitt told the CSPI.
“They market cheap toys that appeal to kids and it works.”
She said her kids, a boy of 6 and a girl of 3, 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,” she added.
Although this is the first time that CSPI has planned court action against McDonald’s, the consumer group is not the only body to scrutinize the company’s practice of using free toys to promote fast foods to children.
Earlier this year, the Board of Supervisors of Santa Clara County in California passed an ordinance preventing McDonald’s and other restaurants from using child-oriented incentives, including toys, to sell unhealthy meals.
Also, later this year, the Federal Trade Commission is due to release a set of voluntary standards for food marketers which is expected to say something about toy promotions after the Commission reported in 2008 that food companies spend more than 350 million dollars a year on toy giveaways in the US.
CSPI has threatened other food companies with court action before. In 2006 they told Kellogg they would take them to court for marketing junk food and sugary cereals directly to children. They eventually settled out of court and since then Kellogg has only advertised to young audiences foods that have no trans fats, and a maximum of 200 calories, 2 grams of saturated fat, 230 mg of sodium and 12 grams of sugar per serving.
CSPI also took KFC to court for using partially hydrogenated oil which made their fried chicken very high in trans fat. The consumer group withdrew the lawsuit when KFC agreed to phase out their use of partially hydrogenated oil, and now their fried chicken is free of trans fat.
Sources: CSPI, WebMD.
Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD