Markets

How McDonald's Happy Meal Will Survive This Perfect Storm of Child Abuse Accusations and Litigation

By Jim Edwards

Updated on: July 8, 2010 / 7:07 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

Despite McDonald's (MCD) being compared to a child molester for handing out free toys to kids with its food; despite child obesity increasing as kids watch more fast-food commercials; and despite a threat by health advocates to sue if McDonald's doesn't stop using toys in its marketing in 30 days, the Happy Meal will probably survive.

Yes, things look grim for the Happy Meal and its ilk. Even Burger King (BK)'s former top adman recently called for an end to food advertising that targets children. And the FTC is pondering new regulations. But the Happy Meal will come through this perfect storm of negative headlines (even if it doesn't deserve to) for two reasons:

The study in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine that shows kids' exposure to fast food ads increased between 4.7 percent and 20.4 percent, depending on the age group, is fundamentally flawed.
The U.S. Supreme Court is pro-business and pro-First Amendment, and will never allow any court verdict or new law to prevent McD's from bribing kids with toys.

The study is useful background material on how often children are exposed to food advertising. It is published simultaneously with a study that shows obesity prevalence increased by 10% for all U.S. children and by 18% for female children, between 2003 and 2007. Sounds bad but ... the advertising study only tracks exposure up until 2007. Why the authors chose to end their study there is baffling -- it's based on Nielsen's database, which is current through last week. McDonald's joined the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative in December 2006 and pledged to devote at least 50 percent of its advertising to children under 12 to promote healthier or "better-for-you" foods.

Since then, McD's advertising to kids has been completely different than the ads covered in the survey. The type of "healthy" Happy Meal McD's pledged to advertise was one featuring a burger and apple chips dipped in caramel. (That sounds bad enough but according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, when kids arrive at the McDonald's counter they get fries 93 percent of the time.)

That's one reason why McD's CEO Jim Skinner can afford to sound so combative as he defends the Happy Meal against CSPI's legal threats. The pressure group said:

McDonald's is the stranger in the playground handing out candy to children ... It's a creepy and predatory practice that warrants an injunction.

Skinner responded:

CSPI's twisted characterization of McDonald's as "the stranger in the playground handing out candy to children" is an insult to every one of our franchisees and employees around the world. When CSPI refers to America's children as "an unpaid drone army," you similarly denigrate parents and families, because they are fully capable of making their own decisions. You should apologize.

At first, my reaction was, Oh dear. Skinner is about to lose this one. That "stranger in the playground" metaphor is PR genius. The Happy Meal could easily become the BP Oil Spill of fast-food marketing.

But then I looked at the detail of CSPI's legal threats: They're weak. CSPI claims McD's violates several state consumer laws because advertising to kids is "inherently deceptive, because young kids are not developmentally advanced enough to understand the persuasive intent of marketing." This, as a fact, is true. But good luck proving as a mater of law that offering a Buzz Lightyear with a burger, and then delivering same to anyone who pays, is somehow a fraud.

Even if a state court bought such a claim, Chief Justice John Roberts, the in-house judge of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, will throw it out as soon as Skinner can get his petition for cert drafted.

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Image by Flickr user Joe Shlabotni, CC.