McDonald’s gives moms a peek behind the curtain
Posted
June 11, 2007 at
9:45 am by
Prescott
Given the popularity of books and movies like Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me, as well as the countless number of snarky comments about them on parenting blogs and forums everywhere, it seems McDonald’s is losing favor with the new generation of parents. And the fast food giant aims to do something about that:
McDonald’s has equipped six mothers with laptop computers to record their impressions of its operations over the next few months. The moms were chosen by an independent company from a group of 4,000 applicants, and the blogs and journals will be posted “unedited” beginning June 20 on McDonald’s home page, where it hopes to attract other moms interested in seeing the comments, officials said last week.
The women will be given full access to a restaurant’s operations, will tour a hamburger plant, and even take a trip to an orchard that supplies McDonald’s popular french-fry-alternative apples. (No word on a visit to the sweet, sticky caramel factory.) It seems one of their main goals is eliminating the misconception that everything served hot has made a trip through the microwave:
“One of the most important things I learned is that McDonald’s prepares their food fresh, and I was told the food has a shelf life. So, if your local store is following the proper procedures, you shouldn’t be getting mushy Filet-O-Fish patties or dried-out hamburgers,” [participant] Fitzpatrick-Hughes wrote as part of her first journal entry that will post Wednesday.
Of course this latest PR blitz will do nothing to sway the McDonald’s is evil crowd, but will reading other mom’s accounts of McDonald’s background scene be enough to lure on-the-fence parents back into Ronald’s loving and heart-stopping embrace?
Maybe McDonald’s next move should be to go the full disclosure route and admit that most of their menu falls far out of the realm of “healthy”, but with moderation and an overall balanced diet, an occasional Happy Meal or Big Mac Attack certainly isn’t anything to get worked up about. Now that’s a campaign I can get behind.
Tags: blogs, Health, mcdonalds, moms |
2 Responses to “McDonald’s gives moms a peek behind the curtain”
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1. Beta Mum said:
June 13, 2007 @ 6:27 am
Moderation in all things.
We go every now and then, the children even manage three of their five-a-day fruit and veg when eating there - by (me) choosing OJ, carrot sticks and fruit bags as well as the trans-fat nuggets and fries.
They’re no worse than a lot of other fast food joints, they’re just bigger.
2. Cristina said:
June 16, 2007 @ 10:20 am
I think your campaign idea is a much better one. You should pitch it to McDonald’s before they waste their time and money paying off mothers to campaign for them and tell everyone how “wholesome” and “fresh” their cooking is. Give me a break.