McDonald’s blames games for obesity

  12 Responses to “McDonald’s blames games for obesity”

1. Darniaq says:

   January 10, 2008 at 3:54 pm

   Man, that is almost too easy 🙂 Pots and kettles are just the surface.

   But I don’t disagree. There’s no magic bullet because there’ve been many inputs to the problem. I personally blame the grass. If it wasn’t such a pain in the neck to get to stay alive, and then such a pain in the neck when it IS alive, it’d probably look better all around, in an inviting play-on-me sorta way. But, personally, it just gets so ugly by June I draw the shades, throw on Backyardigans and go back to raiding.

   (just kidding… well, raiding anyway. I don’t do that during the daytime).
2. Richard Bartle says:

   January 10, 2008 at 4:06 pm

   If they’re worried about children not spending time outdoors burning off energy, does that mean they’ll stop putting toys in with the happy meals?

   Richard
3. Markimedes says:

   January 10, 2008 at 5:10 pm

   Almost comical.
   I think that the shifting of blame from the consumer to the producer is one of the greatest tragedies of our age.
4. Arrakiv says:

   January 10, 2008 at 5:47 pm

   Oh, that is just fantastic.

   Anyway, I am pretty much with Markimedes.
5. Morgan Ramsay says:

   January 10, 2008 at 6:21 pm

   I like how the article ends.

   According to The Times, McDonalds UK is ‘on the brink of its best year for two decades’. The firm has enjoyed six per cent like-for-like sales growth in the last year. More than 88 million visits were made to McDonald’s restaurants last month, up 10 million on the previous year.

   Combined with this…

   But he [Steve Easterbrook] made special mention of the popularity of games – and said they have reduced the amount of time young people spend outdoors “burning off energy”.

   A few potential spins:

   * McDonald’s increases the amount of time young people spend outdoors “burning off energy” by forcing them to travel to the restaurants.

   The other side of Easterbrook’s statement:

   * McDonald’s increases the amount of energy young people have to spend outdoors.

   And my favorite:

   * McDonald’s reduces the amount of time young people spend outdoors “burning off energy” by establishing restaurants on every street corner around the world.

   That said, I wonder if McDonald’s serves breakfast anytime here in Las Vegas…
6. Water Cooler Games says:

   January 10, 2008 at 6:49 pm

   Prepare to Fatten…

   The game’s goal is not to tell people what to eat or how to exercise, but to demonstrate the complex, interwoven relationships between nutrition and factors like budgets, the physical world, subsidies, and regulations. … By choosing your character…
7. Kerri Knight says:

   January 11, 2008 at 12:08 am

   If they’re worried about children not spending time outdoors burning off energy, does that mean they’ll stop putting toys in with the happy meals?

   http://www.happymeal.com/

   HELLO?!?!?!?!

   My favorite part, near the top left corner ‘hey kids, this is advertising’

   Weren’t they putting little CDs in happy meals with games featuring the McDonalds characters for kids to play on their computers a few years ago?
8. Richard Bartle says:

   January 11, 2008 at 12:31 am

   Kerri Knight>Weren’t they putting little CDs in happy meals with games featuring the McDonalds characters for kids to play on their computers a few years ago?

   They weren’t just doing that: http://www.mobygames.com/game/global-gladiators

   I guess they must have seen the horrific results of this on the waistlines of children, and learned from the experience…

   Richard
9. BadMisterFrosty says:

   January 11, 2008 at 12:53 am

   I could certainly look like an underwear model, would I spend the time running around the block burning more energy instead of reading Raph’s blog. Therefore, it’s Raphs fault.
10. Roc says:

    January 11, 2008 at 5:56 am

    Gaming isn’t a new thing.
    The changes in McDonalds ingredients -are-.

    So I’m a bit disinclined to think more kids gaming somehow makes gaming less healthy than it was a generation ago.
11. Darniaq says:

    January 11, 2008 at 8:29 am

    The size of the market is a lot bigger, so affecting a broader audience, particularly when you roll in browser-based games.

    And gaming is also becoming a new thing, with this one having enough success to subjugate what McD just said 🙂
12. Tarek says:

    January 12, 2008 at 8:55 pm

    Next time you’re in the supermarket picking up groceries, look at the label for “corn syrup” or “corn starch”.

    The stuff is everywhere, and it’s often listed as the second or third ingredient, meaning that there’s more of it than anything following it on the label.

    It’s not just the lack of exercise.

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