McDonald’s- I’m a bad parent!!

So… what the Hell is this thing? Well, I will tell you…. It is a thoughtful toy that came with my son’s happy meals. Its a penguin that shoots some sort of disc out of his mouth and a suction cup on his belly. WHAT?? Yep… that’s what it is.

So, for starters- why is the penguin shooting stuff out of his mouth? Are there penguins that do this? And what is the deal with the suction cup? Can penguins climb walls like Spider-man??? I guarantee you that this is how this worked out… O.K. we have a Chinese guy sitting in his office, thinking about this toy that he is going to make…. Well, it shoots discs out of its mouth… but you know what, I don’t think that’s quite enough… so we’re going to give him a suction cup as well so the kids can stick him on the refrigerator… it just needs a little more.

So, then the Chinese company went and pitched this idea to the people at McDonald’s…. and they thought it was great…. or at least acceptable and they stuck it in my kid’s happy meal.

So, what does this have to do with weight loss??? Good question!! Nothing really, other than it is the brain trust built by Ray Kroc that we now seem to trust with the nutrition of our kids. I know, I am guilty…. I mean, I try to go to Chick-Fil-A instead, but McDonald’s was so much more convenient. You know, I have heard that before…. that McDonald’s is not really in the hamburger business, they are in the Real Estate business. So I guess we have left our kids nutrution in the hands of a bunch of Real Estate Investors and toy inventors.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 27th, 2010 at 2:33 pm and is filed under WDS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “McDonald’s- I’m a bad parent!!”

Heather Says:
February 27th, 2010 at 7:59 pm

Rob, it’s like you wrote this post for me!

Only because it concerns two things I sort of know a lot about – in high school, I managed a McDonald’s (the shame). And right now, I live in China. (I won’t talk about that, though.)

The whole McDonald’s toy thing is insane. It’s a brilliant marketing strategy (where brilliant is not equal to “good for people”). Kids and parents go nuts trying to “collect all 10″. And you know they only have a “limited time” to do it – which means more frequent trips to the nearest golden arches. I’ve seen kids throw absolute fits if the toy they “need” isn’t in stock. Heck, I’ve seen parents throw fits!

Not hungry? That’s okay, because you can still buy the toys separately, for, like, $2.50 each or something. No doubt they’re making a tidy profit margin on those purchases.

Remind me…why do people want these toys so bad again?

Sigh – real estate investors and toy inventors indeed.

Roder Says:
February 28th, 2010 at 1:39 am

Hey Rob, Thanks for the comment on my old blog. If you’re still interested in following me, you can now find me here: http://www.timeifinishwhatistarted.com/

FatGirl Says:
March 10th, 2010 at 6:55 pm

I thought a lot of that when our son opened that stupid toy! :)

-Me
http://fatwithaprettyface.blogspot.com/

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