"Brother, can you spare a dime … so I can buy my kid a Happy Meal toy?"
Now that McDonald's is not allowed to give away toys in Happy Meals in San Francisco as of yesterday, the restaurant chain has decided to sell the toys to Happy Meal purchasers … for 10¢.
They aren't giving them away, but not by much. Of course, McDonald's could have changed the healthy dynamic of the Happy Meal and been in accordance with the ordinance. Legally, that was an option. McDonald's chose to make parents pay an additional dime for the "free" toy.
A dime is probably more than it costs to make the toy in China, and slightly less than the worth outside of the whining child. McD's says the proceeds from the toy sales will go to the Ronald McDonald House of San Francisco.
You can't purchase the toy without the Happy Meal first, and you can't imagine parents will stop at the Happy Meal and not pony up an extra dime so the whining can stop.
What is 10¢ on top of $3 where the toy is the prize, not the food? Happy Meals haven't been about the food, and this new policy proves that point.
You knew McDonald's was going to come up with some policy, and you knew McDonald's would still tie toys to food. Advantage: McDonald's.
Back in December 2010, when this story first surfaced, I recommended that parents buy the Happy Meal to get the toy, and then give away the food or throw it out.
Finally, if your kids are screaming loud enough for the toys, as a parent, here is what you should do. Drive to McDonald's without your kids, buy the Happy Meal, check to make sure the toy is correct, and throw out the food. Or give the food to a homeless person who doesn't have enough to eat.
Yes, McDonald's gets its money, Toy companies give away their toys. But your kids get the toys without eating the fast food. And they play with those toys at the dinner table while eating a nutritious dinner that you cooked for them.
True, you will have paid about 3 bucks for a toy that Chinese kids probably made for 2.3 cents. But the kids get the toy without associating the toy with fast food.
Just because McDonald's side-stepped the San Francisco ordinance doesn't mean you have lost control of the situation. The food marketing forces will always try harder to make those food-toy connections. Your job, as parents, is to fight back. You can side-step the system yourself.
If you live in San Francisco, go to McDonald's, walk up to the counter and tell the person that you want to donate the cost of a Happy Meal plus 10¢ to the Ronald McDonald House of San Francisco. Tell me you don't want the food, you just want the toy. Once you have the toy, you can give it a child in your circle of family or friends. If that isn't an option, donate the toy for the less-fortunate.
This way, you can send the message to McDonald's that Happy Meals aren't about the food in their current form.
Previous coverage:
Daily Show takes on Happy Meals in San Francisco
We should change definition of 'happy' as San Francisco bans associating toys with fast food
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