McDonald's can be considered a food giant (I said food, not 'healthy food'), although the truth is that marketing is not bad at all either. Proof of this we have in the recent initiative in our country, when they launched a European project to promote children's reading as a family through a digital book platform.
There was already a history in the United Kingdom, but during the next month, in the United States, the "happy little box" of children's menus will contain books that they will publish ("I stew it and I eat it," you might say). And the most surprising thing is that these books will include nutritional messages (Hopefully at least they have been advised by a nutritionist), created by the advertising agency Leo Burnett.
Initially four titles will be published including messages about food, and starring different animals that will live adventures intended to get good nutrition. But this activity will be expanded from 2014, through the distribution of ebooks, through various platforms in the United States. In turn, the Happy Meal website will offer different content, so any child can interact - if you want - permanently with McDonald's, although I in this I see no advantage If I think about the health of the little ones, regardless of whether it is fun.
The volume of the stories to be distributed is not a little bit of turkey, because we talk about 20 million books (and this will exceed the best seller edition runs like "The Hunger Games"), and this is why I commented that advertising is not bad either, and this coupled with the capacity of the company, will surely make the initiative very successful.
Some say it is still an advertising strategy (more) for capture an audience that are potentially main consumers of menus (children), and others who claim that to take a piece of plastic (which nobody knows who has manufactured and how it has been painted), better to return home with a book.
And I, what do you want me to say? They are not restaurants that frequent, although I do not say that I have never taken my children to a fast food place. Of course, when I have done it, he has been aware that it was an exception, and that although my children are attracted (to call it somehow) for toys, we will not return until the next extraordinary occasion and out of the norm. And I don't care if they give away books, notebooks, stickers or articulated dolls that are useless.
Because basically what should interest us parents is that eating out, besides being a fun family experience, be healthy (That's why laying the foundations for children's future nutrition). And remember that according to this study by Eroski Consumer, restaurants should offer a children's menu that includes at least one plate of salad or vegetable, being even healthier if the offer does not abuse ingredients of animal origin, and the dishes are cooked fat-free.
In short, on the one hand it seems that the initiative has some sense (during the last years the company has had to sign several agreements to promote healthy food among children), although we must not forget that it can also be a reaction to complaints considering that it was a hoax to attract children to fast food, through the use of toys or other similar items.
And on the other hand, although the protagonists of the stories did not advertise McDonalds products, I think that nutrition is a very serious matter, and it is the task of the whole society get children to eat healthy, and this is not achieved by regularly taking them to these types of establishments.
