Kevin brought up a good point on his blog: blog:https://blogs.ubc.ca/kevinsong/

I want to emphasize on Kevin’s point on how fast food chains are fueling obesity, and for the most part I will focus on McDonalds. Many people blame fast food chains for their influence on a child’s diet, however, many fast food chains turn the blame around and push the responsibility back to the parents. Yes, ultimately, parents are able to somewhat control what their child eats, but realistically, no parent wants to endure endless whining from their child for naively wanting to complete their Happy Meal toy set.

With McDonalds flawless marketing strategy, it is very hard for kids to resist such temptations.

Which child can resist a happy meal like the one above? To children, parents are just taking away their happiness by not giving them their ‘happy meal’. They don’t see that parents are trying to protect them and their health. When marketing, McDonalds often fail to give full details of how their food was made.

With commercials like these, kids can be instantly attracted to McDonalds and engrossed on how to get the complete set of the very popular Despicable Me characters. How much longer can fast food chains take advantage of innocent kids who know no better? I understand that McDonalds is a profit-maximizing company, but isn’t it time for McDonalds to change their ways? With so much money going into advertising Happy Meals, can’t they invest in using healthier ingredients to make their food? This is an opportunity! If McDonalds used healthier ingredients, and properly communicated this to the public, it will be no surprise that parents will become more lenient in letting their kid buy happy meals, while improving their public image.