McDonald's Magic: Calories Disappear from Happy Meals After Chain Is Threatened With Lawsuit
McDonald's (MCD) first response to the recent controversy over the use of toys in Happy Meals was predictable -- a public, sternly-worded defense of the all-important Happy Meal brand from CEO Jim Skinner. But its latest action is not exactly the sort of thing you would have seen coming.
A McDonald's nutrition document from early June -- that is, before the Center for Science in the Public Interest threatened to sue McDonald's for using toys to lure children to eat fattening food -- shows that the chain quietly lopped off 70 calories from 12 of the possible 24 offending Happy Meal combinations.
Happy Meals are now less fattening! But why? Is this mysterious calorie disappearance an attempt to head off further criticism and make Happy Meals look healthier? The timing suggests so. Although McDonald's says it was a "technological error."
On June 3rd, a Happy Meal with Chicken Nuggets, Apple Dippers and a 12 oz. Sprite, for instance, had 460 calories. But by the 25th, three days after CSPI stirred up trouble for McDonald's with a well-covered press conference, that same Happy Meal was 390 calories, according to nutrition information on the company's web site. This makes it one of three that now falls under the 430 calorie threshold CSPI cited as a reasonably sized meal for children aged 4 to 8. In its letter to McDonald's, CSPI chastised the company for not having a single Happy Meal that met that target.
McDonald's spokesperson Danya Proud says that the packages of low fat caramel dip in the Happy Meal Apple Dippers were accidentally counted twice in the earlier nutrition information, resulting in an overstatement of calories. In other words, any connection this had to CSPI's legal threats, is pure coincidence.
In an age of obese children, there's no question that McDonald's is feeling the heat over its age-old practice of selling burgers, fries and soda to kids with the help of extremely cool toys. My esteemed colleague Jim Edwards thinks the company will survive this brewing storm of bad PR, but I disagree.
With all the hand-wringing these days over the problem of childhood obesity, no food company can risk being seen as part of the problem instead of a responsible partner that's helping to create solutions. McDonald's, in particular, has worked hard in recent years to avoid being seen as the bad guy.
CSPI doesn't really want to sue McDonald's -- nobody wants to deal with protracted, expensive legal battles. What they want is for McDonald's to sit down at the table and create meaningful restrictions on how they market food to kids. And since CSPI will probably settle for something short of a total abandonment of Happy Meal toys, it makes no sense for McDonald's not to do it.
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