Monday, April 21, 2014

McDonald's: a Not-So-Happy Meal

Any parent, babysitter, fun aunt or uncle, grandparent, or caregiver of children has probably at some point in time gone through a Mickey D's drive-thru and ordered a Happy Meal. In fact, they go on sale in my area on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I'll be driving through myself, to get my son a "treat." 

...or toy. Read toy. 

They only want the toy.



The use of gender-biased toys is what sent Antonia Ayres-Brown, at the age of 11, to email the McDonald's CEO to complain.

In an extremely interesting article, Antonia explains the process she went through, even conducting experiments, to determine if McDonalds truly don't bias their toy-giving on gender, as per the policy the CEO stated in a letter to her.

In fact, in one study, they caught a McDonald's employee refusing to give a little girl a "boy" toy, and even lied and said they only had girl ones. They sent in an adult male a few minutes later, and he was promptly given the "boy" toy he requested for the Happy Meal. 

Not wanting to give away the ending, I suggest you take a moment and read the article here.



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