A study from the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine purports that kids as young as three years old have their perception of taste “physically altered by…branding,” specifically McDonald’s:

Anything made by McDonald’s tastes better, preschoolers said in a study that powerfully demonstrates how advertising can trick the taste buds of young children.

Even carrots, milk and apple juice tasted better to the kids if it was wrapped in the familiar packaging of the Golden Arches.

The study had youngsters sample identical McDonald’s foods in name-brand or unmarked wrappers. The unmarked foods always lost the taste test.

The kids that participated in the study were 63 three to five year olds from low-income families that attend Head Start centers in San Mateo, California. The study author, Dr. Tom Robinson, “believes” the outcome would be the same no matter what the income level of the family.

Sure to spark another shit storm of lawsuits and cries for advertising bans, one person offers a dissenting view:

Pradeep Chintagunta, a University of Chicago marketing professor, said a fairer comparison might have gauged kids’ preferences for the McDonald’s label versus another familiar brand, such as Mickey Mouse.

“I don’t think you can necessarily hold this against” McDonald’s, he said, since the goal of marketing is to build familiarity and sell products.

He noted that parents play a strong role in controlling food choices for children so young.

All I know is I’m heading down to our local Mickey D’s to see if they’ll sell me a box full of wrappers — it finally might be the way I get my kids to eat my tofu and veggie lasagna.

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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.

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From the Associated Press:

Ottawa, IL — Keith Irelan and his three children went through a McDonald’s drive-thru Monday night to order Happy Meals. They were on their way to meet their mother at a nearby school for a picnic, police said.

But one of the children — an 8-year-old girl — got a lighter, pipe, and bag of marijuana in her Happy Meal, according to Ottawa Police Chief Brian Zeilmann. Her father went to the police.

In other news, Burger King will begin its “Crack Whore Value Meal” promotion next week.

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It all began with the prospect of a free burrito or burrito bowl at Chipotle. Innocent enough. The manager of Chipotle extended an offer to the company I work for, a marking effort to drum up some business for the new franchise down the street. I hadn’t been to one in years, but some of my co-workers invited me along and from what little I knew of Chipotle, I was confident I could find something that would be on my Weight Watchers plan. Even though I aware they were owned by McDonald’s, I also knew it was full of fresh ingredients, rice, and beans, all low fat alternatives.

Even though I was planning on being conservative and just ordering a salad, I considered this a big treat in comparison to my usual Lean Cuisines. I told the teenager behind the counter that I was on a diet and asked what she would recommend. She suggested the Chipotle Bowl, a burrito in a bowl, minus the tortilla. “The tortilla will kill ya,” she said.

It’s hard to believe that Chipotle is owned by McDonald’s. It just looked and tasted so healthy, and damn was it good! So good in fact, that I went again the next week. How could a salad “bowl” be so tasty? I could eat it everyday. In fact, it tasted so good, I started to become suspicious. I purposely asked for only a pinch of cheese, a smear of sour cream and a smear of guacamole, but something tasted fishy, as in McDonald’s Fish Sandwich caloric nightmare fishy.

That night, I went to look up my Chipotle diet treat, but nutrient and caloric information is suspiciously absent from their website. I had to go to www.chipotlefan.com to get the real scoop and it wasn’t pretty. I was so incredibly shocked by what I found out, I confirmed it on Weight Watchers online database, only to find out, even with my “smears”, we were talking 18 points. I only get 25 points a day!! So, I was eating 2/3 of my daily total on that asshole salad! Dieters BEWARE!!!!

No wonder I was stagnant with my weight loss. I was going on two or three weeks without a change, until this week, when I’ve lost another 4 pounds. My experience demonstrates how you can’t just assume something is low calories or low fat, you really need to do the research and read the labels.

Total loss since January 1, 2007 — 19 lbs. (I just couldn’t push it to 20, but close enough!)

That being said, I submit new pictures:

continue reading…

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I thought for sure this news report was coming out of California or Washington State, but no, this latest bit on the squashing of free enterprise comes from across the pond. The Guardian Unlimited in the UK reports, ”health charities today renewed calls for a ban on the advertising of junk food to children as new government research predicted rising obesity in the next few years.” Of course, that makes total sense! Parents are helpless when their children are being brainwashed by the commercials on television. I mean, really, what’s a parent to do when their kid incessantly demands McDonald’s for dinner — say NO? Cut down on their TV viewing to decrease the advertising bombardment? Preposterous!! 

It’s much easier, apparently, to pass a law and smack the hand of the nasty corporations at the root of all evil. People are fat? Corporations fault! High fuel prices? Corporations! War in Iraq? Corporations! Poor education? You guessed it, corporations! Left-wing liberals that bristle at the label ”communist” or “socialist”, should perhaps, then, tone down the championing of doing away with pure capitalism and a free market society… Fortunately the UK health secretary has a shred of common sense:

However, the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, indicated today that the government would not be pushing strongly for curbs on advertising. She argued about the importance of personal responsibility in the battle against obesity.

Ms Hewitt said lifestyle was important and spoke about the importance of exercise. Fast food firms such as McDonald’s who oppose curbs on advertising have long made similar arguments.

Ms Hewitt said Ofcom and the government would have to assess how far advertising actually influenced the choices children made.

Read the whole story… 

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