Childhood obesity is skyrocketing, and quick serves are unfairly getting the blame.

 

Nobody ever accused Mom or Grandma’s cooking of being a prime contributor to childhood obesity. So why blame the quick-service industry? One out of three kids is classified as overweight or obese. And our marketing is getting the blame.

When I was at the big guy, we were extremely aware of our obligation to kids. Sure, we marketed to kids. As Ray Kroc said, if you had $1 to spend on marketing, spend it on kids, because they bring mom and dad. But we tried to play fair. Our commercials were little stories about good and evil solved by Ronald McDonald and ended with the kids and Ronald at a McDonald’s. But we never told kids to buy or taste anything. There was strictly no sell language in the ads. We used small portions, like the regular hamburger and small fries. And we never advertised Coca-Cola because of caffeine content. We showed orange drink and shakes.

 

Our promotions, like the Happy Meal, had one premium per week, encouraging one out of 21 meals at McDonald’s. And the premiums were of the highest quality. One of the first times we did glasses, after the promotion started, we found out that there was a slight amount of lead in the paint. It was way under restrictions, but it was decided to recall the glasses out of concern for our customers. Can you imagine what that cost? I was never more proud of my company.

We had a written manual that told the men playing Ronald how to be Ronald—how to interact with kids, correct language, and what to do when certain problems occurred. Again, it was all out of concern for our customers.

So why are quick serves in so much trouble for marketing to kids? First, let’s explore the issue.

Obesity is a function of what kids eat, how much they eat, and how much exercise they get, omitting the medical issues like metabolism. What they eat is controlled pretty much by parents and schools with lunch programs. Ditto on how much they eat. And exercise, to a great extent, is simply getting the kid up and moving.
Kids are concerned about how they look. I know of a third grader who wants to play sports, but he is heavy. He went to his uncle, who happens to be a coach, and asked for help. They do care.

So what contributes to the problem? I contend it’s marketers, parents, society’s idea of cool, and schools. Let’s look at each, and then I have some solutions.

Anyone have any suggestions as to what to do with a restaurant building, besides being a restaurant?

My last tennant just quit and I do not want to run the restaurant. We are 5 minutes out into the country.

It is for rent but I'm not too likely to have someone new come in with this ecomony.

We have a refrigerated salad bar. (Vollrath brand) It is keeping our salads at 36' on the corners, it ices up all around, but the salads in the middle of the paramiter will not drop below 45. We have had to put ice in it to keep them at 41. It seems to be an airflow problem during this heatwave. Does anyone have any suggestions that would be better than the mess of ice? Thanks so much!