McDonald's To Be Sued Over Happy Meal Toys

Posted on Jun 28th 2010 2:00PM by Martha Edwards

Nick Ut, AP

First, the state of California threatened to ban them, and now a nutrition watchdog group is threatening to sue McDonald's over them. For something so small and cheaply-made, those toys in you child's Happy Meal are causing a lot of controversy these days.

The crusade against fast food toys was bumped up a few notches last Tuesday when the Center for Science in the Public Interest served hamburger chain McDonald's with a notice of intent to sue over the use of toys to lure children. "[It] undercuts parental authority and exploits young children's developmental immaturity -- all this to induce children to prefer foods that may harm their health. It's a creepy and predatory practice that warrants an injunction," CSPI litigation director Stephen Gardner said in a press release. The CSPI feels that this kind of deceptive marketing is illegal under consumer protection laws.

They go on to point out that of all the 24 Happy Meals that offer toys, none have less than 430 calories. A CSPI study also found that 93 percent of Happy Meals are served with fries, as opposed to a healthier option like apple dippers.

While there's no doubt that childhood obesity is a staggering problem that needs to be tackled immediately, is the CSPI taking the issue a little too far? Yes, kids are impressionable, but at the end of the day, it's usually not the kids who are starting up the car, driving to the nearest drive-thru and forking out cash for a cheeseburger and fries -- it's the parents who are choosing a Happy Meal over a home-cooked one. Where does corporate responsibility end and personal responsibility begin?

"Parents do bear much of the responsibility, but multi-billion-dollar corporations make parents' job nearly impossible by giving away toys and bombarding kids with slick advertising," said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson. Do you agree?

Discover the top 10 worst fast food meals.

9 Comment

Tags: fast food, happy meal, mcdonalds, sue cspi, toys

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

george 6-28-2010 @ 5:29PM

this is a big brother group who thinks it is smart than everybody else.Yes fast food is not realy health but neither is most of the food we eat organic or not.We have pollute our soil,air and water for how many decades ?
Why not sue television for keeping kids inside or schools for not having mandatory gym class's for all grades.
We are responsible for our actions or lack of so tell this group and others like it to put their money in advertising health and exersing.

judy shivers 6-28-2010 @ 5:49PM

These actions are just an example of how completely un-realistic we are becoming as a nation. This law suit will just open up the door for more stupidity. As parents we should make the decisions on if we want to purchase their type of food for our children occasionally. I have all kinds of toys from McDonald's as keep sakes of my children and grandchildren and eating from McDonald's did not make them fat they are very slim as a matter of fact. Fat comes from lack of exercise. I totally disagree with this law suit.

GP 6-28-2010 @ 6:10PM

Why aren't they going after Ben and Jerry's. Visit BJ's website and if you can navigate through the puffy clouds and cute drawings of contented cows and around all the platitudes about peace, Love and the environment...whoo!...eventually you'll find that one cup (and no one eats less than 1 cup!) of their "Chubby Hubby" frozen lard has 660 calories and 40 grams of fat of which 22 are saturated. Talk about creepy and predatory!

How about Starbucks? That's where my p.c. activist friends like to bemoan the actions of evil corporations while drinking their lattes. Of course, Starbucks is on the "right" side of all the hot topic issues and has cool, cutting edge music on their site. Here's a Starbuck's "Happy activist meal":

One Venti Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha with whipped cream = 700 calories + 27 grams of fat (no fiber to bother with though!) and
One Raspberry Scone = 500 calories + 26 grams of fat.
Total Starbucks "Happy activist's meal" = 1,200 calories and 53 grams of fat. Gobs of sugar too, but you don't have to worry too much about additives like vitamins and minerals.

This is really about picking on a deep pocket that you can portray as a villain. Then you can feel special about yourself and maybe your friend/supporters will see you as a courageous crusader. Plus maybe you can squeeze some money out of them. Can you say "stick em up"?

But remember: never, never pick on a company that your political constituency thinks as cool. That's why you won't see activists lined up to torch Starbucks, or Ben & Jerrys. It wouldn't look cool.

Karen 6-29-2010 @ 11:20AM

This is ridiculous! When are the parents going to be held responsible for their bad judgements? When a "healthy" alternative is offered in a kids' meal, nine times out or ten, the PARENT allows the child to have fries and soda. Every kids meal offers a toy, otherwise, nobody would buy it! I personally don't go to Mcd's and rarely took my kids there. That was my choice as a parent. however, we did still go to fast food places and they did get the kids meal with a toy. GUess what...they have grown up to be healthy adults. Go figure.

Randy 6-29-2010 @ 1:23PM

The bigger problem everyone is the internal health of our population. Our society has accepted diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes etc. as a part of growing older. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes Mcdonalds and places like Dunkin Donuts are large part of the problem along with processed boxed foods. It is about choice and convenience. Remember our economy is going to be driven by the sickness industry. Everything from our health care system to the food industry. In my opinion you opt to defend and justify the actions of the food industry you are an advocate for disease and unhealthiness.

Jenn 6-29-2010 @ 11:31AM

"Parents do bear much of the responsibility..."

As they should!!

joan 6-29-2010 @ 3:03PM

And, we wonder why this country is going to hell in a hand basket. WHERE are the parents. Does today's generation of Parents not know how to say N-O! Sooo much money, time and effort is wasted on really stupid law suits - I'm still steamed (no pun intended) over the money McDonald's had to pay out for the hot coffee or the tobacco company paid to a widow whose husband died because he was a smoker. USE COMMON SENSE - or has that ability been totally lost in the past couple of generations? HELLO??!!!?! Why don't these folks spend their extra time and/or money volunteering someplace, helping to end domestic violence, helping to feed the millions of children/adults in America that are hungry. Do these groups have nothing better to fight for?

JT 6-29-2010 @ 10:35PM

Until someone smacks parents upside the head (as you all seem to be wishing for) thank you CSPI for at least doing SOMETHING. Maybe a few parents would clue in after hearing about this type of lawsuit on the news. Who cares if it's a stupid lawsuit?? Hell's yes bring attention to it...FRONT AND CENTER!!!
If any of you read publications by CSPI you would know that they indeed view the crap at Starbucks and Ben and Jerry's as the crap it actually is just like the crap at McD's. McFat's is just the largest and flashiest and the MOST advertised to CHILDREN. It is the CHILDREN who need the advertising to STOP! Maybe if they didn't see their favorite characters attached to Happy Meals or ice cream or alphafreekin getti's they would have less leverage to whine to their (forever giving in) parents about them...who knows.
At least CSPI is taking some kind of action...even if it is stupid.
As for everyone eating McD's and still being thin and healthy, I would just like to point out (and I don't know any of you or your situations but...) thin does NOT equate health...period.

Susan 7-09-2010 @ 7:17PM

Mc Donalds should know that these children are not the ones DRIVING to eat there! Its the Parents responsibility to find the healthy foods! I rarely buy happy meals! Parents need to get a spine and say No or don't go out to eat!