Tempting kids with toys is unfair and deceptive
The group, which previously took on fast-food chain KFC over artery-clogging trans fats, alleged that the practice is illegal under consumer protection laws in states including California, Texas, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
Its a creepy and predatory practice that warrants an injunction, Stephen Gardner, CSPIs litigation director, said in a statement.
McDonalds called the groups charges a misrepresentation of its effort to sell healthier food and safe toys.
Getting a toy is just one part of a fun, family experience at McDonalds, spokesman William Whitman said in a statement.
In 2006, the latest year for which data is available, fast-food companies, led by McDonalds, spent more than 520 million on advertising and toys to promote childrens meals, according to a U.S. Federal Trade Commission report.
The latest Happy Meal promotion from McDonalds is a tie-in with the popular DreamWorks Animation film Shrek Forever After. The meals include toy watches fashioned after the movies characters Shrek, Donkey, Gingy and Puss in Boots.
Those characters also appear in television and Internet ads for McDonalds. A recent recall of cadmium-contaminated Shrek-themed glasses is unrelated to the CSPI action.
Such advertising appears to have significant influence over youngsters and has come under renewed scrutiny in the United States, where obesity in children is under attack.
A study published on Monday in the journal Pediatrics found that children preferred snack food in packages decorated with popular cartoon characters. However, using the cartoons did not have the same effect in encouraging the youngsters, aged 4 to 6, to eat carrots.
Offered the identical snack with and without a character on the packaging, the children consistently said the snack from the cartoon-decorated package tasted better, Christina Roberto of Yale University in Connecticut and colleagues found.
Weve talked to McDonalds over the years about at least limiting the toys to the healthier Happy Meals, and never made any progress, Jacobson said. I think its indisputable that cheap, high-calorie foods epitomized by fast foods have been a major contributor to this obesity epidemic.
McDonalds and other U.S. food companies recommend regular physical activity and offer some healthy food options while also marketing food packed with calories, fat and salt.
McDonalds shares closed 1.8 percent lower on Tuesday to 68.64 on the New York Stock Exchange, on a day of broad losses for stocks.
WANT FRIES WITH THAT
In 2007, McDonalds and other large U.S. food and drink companies like Coca-Cola Co and General Mills Inc pledged to adopt stricter controls on advertising aimed at children under the age of 12.
McDonalds U.S. advertising focuses on Happy Meals with chicken nuggets, apple dippers and low-fat milk. But CSPI said its own study found that when children or parents ordered Happy Meals, they were given French fries 93 percent of the time and offered soda first in 78 percent of visits.
The number of calories in the 24 available Happy Meal options ranges from 450 to 700. Every Happy Meal has more than 430 calorieswhich CSPI said would represent about one-third of the 1,300 daily calories recommended for children aged 4 to 8 — and each one comes with a toy.
McDonalds practice of dangling toys in front of children is illegal, regardless of what meal the child eventually gets, CSPIs Gardner wrote in a June 22 letter addressed to McDonalds executives and released to the media.
Not only does the practice mobilize pester power, but it also imprints on developing minds brand loyalty for McDonalds, said Gardner. Most of the fast-food chains menu options are of poor nutritional quality, he added.
U.S. first lady Michelle Obama is pushing companies to offer healthier food for kids IDnLDE62G1PI, and some elected officials are taking matters into their own hands and passing laws and taxes aimed at curbing obesity.
Lawmakers in Californias Silicon Valley have passed a law that would prevent restaurants from giving away free toys and other incentives with unhealthy kids meals.
The legislation, which got final approval from Santa Clara Countys Board of Supervisors in May and goes into effect in August, would set basic nutritional standards for childrens meals and allow restaurants to give away toys only with meals that meet national nutritional criteria for children.
Additional reporting by Maggie Fox in Washington editing by John Wallace and Tim Dobbyn source