Given that it’s been raining for ages, I’ve spent a lot of time inside. I’ve been working most of the time, but also reading and goofing off a little, surfing the news. What can I say, it’s gray and depressing, so I need a diversion. Today, I read something so absurd, I can barely even believe it. Apparently, the folks at McDonald’s are worried that people perceive their foods as unhealthy. According to a Yahoo News article this morning, our friends at MickyD’s "will begin selling skateboards and bikes bearing the fast-food company’s brand in a new effort to get kids to burn off burgers and fries with exercise." They are also are planning to give Ronald a makeover to make him look more "athletic."
Oh puhleez. Am I the only person who thinks this is the dumbest idea EVER?
I’m probably one of the only people in Sandpoint who has never actually set foot in our local McDonald’s. It’s not that I have anything against the place. I just don’t have Big Mac attacks because I’m a vegetarian. However, this doesn’t mean that I don’t see the long lines at the drive through on my way to the grocery store. Our local fast food joints do big business.
Are all those folks waiting in the drive through line because they want some tasty, healthy food? No. Pretty much everyone in the drive through knows exactly what they’ll be getting, and they know it’s not going to be good for them. But it will be fast and they’re starving now, so they don’t care.
Putting the Golden Arches logo on kiddy play equipment is not suddenly going convince that guy in the drive through that the super-sized Quarter Pounder and jumbo fries he just ordered is anything other than what it is: junk food.
People aren’t stupid. No matter how much money McDonald’s spends trying to convince people that "fitness is fun," it won’t matter. In the drive through line, fast beats healthy any day. Ronald McDonald might be looking more athletic, but I don’t think it’s because he’s eating Big Macs.