CASE STUDY McDonalds
Advertising for kids -Happy Meal
McDonalds is one of the most well known fast food restaurants in the world. It is so popular that
it sells seventy-five hamburgers every second and is shockingly also the worlds largest toy
distributor. The powerful company is an overwhelming influence not only in the worlds
economy, but also the worlds holistic lifestyle and health; therefore, McDonalds must be
carefully monitored-carefully monitored meaning every move, every change, every single action
the company makes needs to be a healthy one. Since the McDonalds business is unbelievably
large, it has to manufacture a lot of food, and in a fast food business more in numbers means
lower quality. But the food served isn’t lower quality. The food is not even food. It is poison! The
chain restaurants food that is sold to the world population contains over 70 cancer-promoting
ingredients (Roberts), not to mention it also contains preservatives that are butane-based,
bleached flour, and the main ingredient found in silly putty (Breyer). It is clear that McDonalds
does not sell food that anyone should be eating; yet, it poisons 68 million people a day, or in
other words one percent of the population (Lubin, and Badkar.) 68 million people poisoned
every single day. This atrocity absolutely without doubt needs to be stopped.
The Ethics of Marketing to Kids - A Happy Meal Example
We all know that McDonald’s is bad for your waistline and for your health, but what the
McDonald’s commercial tells us is contrast with the facts. McDonald’s commercial always
portrays that McDonald’s restaurant is a fun place for kids where they can enjoy both playing
and eating. The commercials tell us that McDonald’s restaurant is the perfect place for family
to eat out because of its affordable price, food quality and uncompromising hygiene.
Sometimes, they also release Happy Meal toys to attract kids. They have never mentioned
that their food is excessive in salt and fat which contribute to obesity.
Provided that most countries are implementing self-regulating system in advertising industry,
food companies have their own power in disseminating their consumerist ideology to children
through advertisements on television.
McDonald’s Happy Meals: Toy Incentives and Leanwashing Happy Meals’ Toy Premiums Toys
have actually been coupled with food for a long time. Klein (2018) states during 1950s, toys
were already included in American breakfast cereals. In 1977, Bob Bernstein, a Kansas City
advertising executive, created the Happy Meal for McDonald's (Applegate, 1988). Bernstein
said, “we were inspired by reading cereal boxes… The first 12 Happy Meal boxes had puzzles,
games, riddles and connect-the-dots games” (Applegate, 1988). According to Linda Kravitz,
director of youth marketing for McDonald’s in 1988, Happy Meal targeted customers aged 2
to 10 and McDonald’s was also the first food company to advertise children’s meals on TV
(Applegate, 1988). These TV commercials did emphasize the pairing of colorful toys with the
Happy Meal menu items. Kravitz also said McDonald’s rolled out the first national Happy Meal
with the “Star Trek” theme in 1978. Ever since, the Happy Meal has usually been themed to
promote a current family-oriented movie; this phenomenon is called “cross-promotion” or
“crossover marketing.” Toys connected with popular movies were such a successful
promotion for McDonald’s. In 1995, McDonald’s ordered 750 million toys, more than any toys
companies (Feder, 1996). Today, McDonald’s reportedly serves 1.2 billion Happy Meals
globally every year (Klein, 2018). Since the first Happy Meals came out in 1978, four decades
passed. The same children who enjoyed Happy Meals toys back then are now in their forties
and fifties. Most likely a large number of those children have become life-time customers of
McDonald’s.
Questions
• What ethical problems can you find in this case study?
• Can you find more detail information about these case on the internet – press – how is
the information presented?
• What strategies could be focused to deal with this issue?
• What different answers do the different school of ethics have to give an answer to the
problems of this case study?
