Unhappy Meals: The Politics of the Fast Food Toy
In December of 2011, San Francisco enacted the Healthy Food Incentive Ordinance. The ordinance was aimed at curbing childhood obesity by banning fast food restaurants from giving away free toys with kids' meals unless those meals met strict nutritional guidelines. The problem the city was trying to address is a problem parents, governments, and other agencies have been addressing for quite a while: fast food advertisements that target children.
What's wrong with advertising to kids? Opponents argue that children are too young to understand the health risks of fast food and that gimmicks such as toy giveaways lead to more kids eating cheeseburgers, french fries, and calorie-packed drinks--thus, more kids are obese, perhaps for the rest of their lives. Childhood obesity is not only a personal or family problem for those involved, it's a social problem as these obese children become adults and drain America's health care system with their constant medical issues. Laws such as the San Francisco ordinance are attempting to protect the country as much as they are trying to protect the individual.
San Francisco's ordinance was meant to pressure fast food chains like McDonald's into re-vamping their menu with healthier Happy Meals and more nutritious foods for children. McDonald's, however, found a clever way around the law: instead of giving away toys for free, those famous Happy Meal Toys now cost 10 cents. That's right, the law only bans free toys. McDonald's is donating the toy money to a charity (the Ronald McDonald House), but they're doing nothing to change the food contents of the Happy Meal itself.
I'm sure San Francisco and other government agencies are trying to cook up a new ordinance or law in response to McDonald's tactics, but it will most likely be a tough road when trying to challenge the most successful and ubiquitous fast food chain in the world. McDonald's food, after all, is cheap, and even as more people understand the nutritional info of cheeseburgers and fries, you can still get a cheeseburger and order of fries for less than $2. Compare that with the typical price of a single apple (about $1). Until the federal government makes some changes in the kinds of farm subsidies it offers, fast food will continue to be cheaper and more accessible than healthy alternatives, and families won't mind paying an extra 10 cents for a toy.