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CafeMom PassionDiva_NY at the Summit.
The following is a guest post from CafeMom member PassionDiva_NY.
I was invited to join four other moms on the 2009 McDonald's Moms' Quality Correspondents Summit.
Like many people, the first thoughts that came to mind were skepticism and curiosity. What exactly do they show these moms, how much information do they divulge, and what is the overall experience like?
I’m not an avid fast-food eater. Nor am I a nutritionist. But I am conscious about what goes into my little ones’ bodies. So off I go into McDonald’s world to learn all about the evolution of the Happy Meal and McDonald’s new coffee line, McCafé.
Our first stop was The Marketing Store, one of the companies that develops the Happy Meal designs and toys. Considering the Happy Meal and I are the same age, I was excited to learn about what it takes to create an actual Happy Meal theme. Before this session, I thought it was just as simple as designing the box and buying several million mini toys from some unknown foreign factory. Ha! -- was I wrong.
The board room was fabulously decorated with displays of archived Happy Meal toys from the very first one – Circus Wagon, to some all time faves, which included 101 Dalmatians, TY Beanie Babies and even the seven-piece Inspector Gadget.
The meeting began with a historical look at the Happy Meal. The first one was nationally released on July 16, 1979 and consisted of 5 Circus Wagon boxes and 5 toys. We viewed several old commercials and more recent ones that turned into favorites. It was apparent and consistent that they wanted their message to be about the fun family time that could be had at a McDonald’s.
We also learned it takes approximately 24 months to complete a Happy Meal theme. From the creative brainstorming, to model rendering and engineering, licensor approvals, and then finally to the Hong Kong production factories, McDonald’s is a part of the process the entire way.
After the slide show we got to walk around The Marketing Store office and had a peek at the different phases a toy endures. Of all the processes, the one that captured my interest most was the safety testing. McDonald’s tests their toys not only for choking, but for fingers getting stuck, hands getting stuck in the flat form or fist form, ear and nose holes, sounds, speed, torque, bite, compression, and pull. If the toy fails during any of these tests, it’s back to the drawing board. Oh, by the way, McDonald’s choking standard is greater than the industry standard, and they vow to share their standards with anyone.
After playing with toys for a while -- and being totally impressed with this company’s standards and processes -- it was off to a local McDonald’s to meet with a few chiefs about the more important component of the Happy Meal: the food.
Many moms have asked why can’t they substitute one item for another in a Happy Meal. The answer is quite simple – in order for a kids meal to be a kids meal, McDonald’s standards says a Happy Meal should not exceed 600 calories. So when adding items to the food choice menu for a Happy Meal, they take into account how that would affect the caloric measurements including their standards for sodium, fat, saturated fat and sugar.
This meeting was another eye-opening experience for me as I learned about the conscious effort this company really takes into developing something for its consumers. McDonald’s is a participant in the Food Ad Pledge, which states that they will not market junk food to kids. They’re already prepared for the changes to come on the 2010 dietary guidelines – what we know as the food pyramid. They have a global advisory council, which consists of doctors who give insight and perspective on their menu.
They recently partnered with The Scripps Research Institute to focus on research around child obesity and type 2 diabetes.They described this partnership as something way bigger than any company. This is about the health and well-being of everyone. They pride themselves on being partners to parents and teachers and have created resources like http://www.passport2play.com/, which is a barely branded website that gives parents and teachers new and fun ideas on how to get and keep kids active by learning about different games played by other kids around the world.
Considering the cutbacks on a lot of our nation’s physical education classes in our schools, this was pretty big for me. Yes, one can get this information anywhere, but knowing that a company like McDonald’s runs and promotes this site, among many other charitable contributions, spoke volumes to me. Overall, what have I learned from this McDonald's experience?
- The chicken is all white meat.
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The milk is really milk.
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The toys are made with thoughtful and conscious efforts to ensure my kid’s safety.
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The packing on most toys are 10 times more likely to harm my child than a Happy Meal toy.
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There is a Hamburger University.
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The Happy Meal has less calories than my usual daily breakfast.
I can see why McDonald’s wanted to give the average mom this behind-the-scenes experience. And I’m glad they did. I have a new found respect for them. Would I feed my kids burgers and fries every day? Probably not. But I do feel more comfortable knowing that all those misconceptions are truly misconceptions.
Click here to see more of my photos from the Summit. Click here to learn more about the Moms' Quality Correspondents.
Coming next week ... what I learned about McCafé.
Comments (19)
Honestly, I don't care how much they spend marketing their products, including having average all-American mom's endorse their stuff on CafeMom, I still won't buy McDonald's or any other fast-food establishment's meal for my son or myself. Maybe when they come out with whole-grain buns and baked french fries and choice of cheese...but not before then. Until then, hamburgers are a really special treat and never "fast food". Maybe it's because I grew up on that stuff that I have such a strong aversion to it for my son, but I'll leave the "junk" food and "fast food" meals up to his EOW dad.
WELL THAT IS COOL TO KNOW THAT AT LEAST IT SEEMS THET CARE AND LET US MOMMIES TAKE A BACK SEAT LOOK AT WAT SOME OF OUR KIDS EAT I LOVE THEIRE CHICKEN NUGETS AND THE BIG MACS
The managers can make about $100,000 a year, give or take, why do they pay their 'lowly' employees so little? They only came out with the coffee because since 2002 their business has not boomed after building more McDonalds. And the quality totally bombed. Then and only then did they decide to go back to the drawing board and crack down on quality, and in healthier sides, like the salads, fruit parfaits, and the apples/milk in the kids meal. How about cracking down and hiring ENGLISH speaking employees, after all this is America. It does sound like you had a good time. I didn't realize that they were trying to go for a specific calorie amount with their kids lunches. That was very helpful to know.
Did they teach you anything about the nutrition in their proudcts? Take you inside how the food is produced? Show the reality of processed food like the new documentary Food, Inc.? It sounds like McDonals' has a deft public relations machine but offered nothing of substance. The length of time it takes to produce a Happy Meal does nothing to address childhood or adult obesity.
Yah...I worked at McDonalds for years. It's gross. :)
I have even better insider info on McDonald's I used to manage there. Not a good place to work and the food is not good for you no matter what they say. I'll spare you the dirty details but if you really want to know PM me.
It's really good to see a company try to do something right for kids. I am glad McDonalds is heading this direction. But now they have to work on getting this known to everyone. The replies above show you! McDonalds was my sons first job and honestly brought him out of his shell! He really is more outgoing because of working there. They helped his class by supplying breakfast burritos one day for a project. And always worked around his school schedule. I would love to see some of these huge toy companies that we have here, go threw the standards McDonalds has, instead of buying our kids toys from a country with less standards on child safety than we have. Maybe we wouldn't have so many product recalls for lead and choking hazards.
I have to go along with Gretchen999. Nutrition? Production? Your article really didn't tell me anything that would make me feel good about feeding my family at McD's.
Ahh... now they have stooped to trying to get new people by trying to claim their products as "healthy." Figures. Anything for a buck! My opinion of McDonald's has not changed. They are just jumping on the "healthy" bandwagon as people are becoming more conscious of what we put in our mouths and in our kids' mouths. All they are really after is more money, they have no interest in actually producing a product that isn't loaded with calories, carbs, and fats. They also need to stop charging more for the "healthy" options (we have to pay an extra dollar for the apples instead of the fries in the happy meals here). I could go on and on but simply put, they only care about the dollars coming in, not the fats going out.
Hi Everyone! Thanks for reading and commenting on my post above. I certainly agree with many of you - fast food isn't for everyone and probably shouldn't be a daily routine either. I cook dinner every night and am very conscious about what I buy and what my family eats. Occasionally I visit fast food chains and this trip gave me the chance to take a look at what goes on inside a mega corporation like McDonald's. I'm not sure that many other corporations are doing anything like this so I feel they deserve a pat on the back for that.
To address some points above, this trip was to learn about the evolution of the Happy Meal and McCafé. While this was my first Moms' Quality Correspondents trip, the original Moms have visited several McDonald's farms, production plants and facilities across the country to learn about what goes into the food, including how the food is grown, that is served at your local McDonald's. If you want to learn more about what those moms experienced on those trips I encourage you to visit the Moms' Quality Correspondents site HERE.
McDonald's and all other chain restaurants or retailers depend on us consumers. If you have feedback about what's going on in your local McDonald's I encourage you to talk to your local restaurant managers. You can even submit feedback to the McDonalds' corporate offices HERE.
I still have tons of questions for McDonald's and hope to have more opportunities to ask not only my questions but yours too.