Friday, April 25, 2008

Classic McMarketing Defends Fast Food

In a move that earned a posting on a web site that publishes weird or unusual happenings in the world of advertising, fast food giant McDonalds is running a campaign designed to bolster public relations when it comes to the quality and nutrition of their menu offerings.

Despite the outrageously high fat and sodium content of their most popular products, as well as disclosure of such unsavory ingredients as anti-foaming agents, the corporation has chosen to go public with this information. Given the current climate amongst most American diners, I suspect that this potentially damaging information will not put Ronald McDonald in the unemployment line. Unfortunately, once people get hooked on eating junk, it becomes what they prefer, and it is not much use trying to confuse them with the facts, that is, until a health concern manifests.

The greatest hope for breaking the cycle of poor dietary and lifestyle habits lies in the hearts of our children. If we as parents can instill in them a love for wholesome, nutritious foods - and stop the addiction to fat, sugar, simple carbohydrates, and other empty calories before it begins - we have an excellent chance of beating the advertisers at their own game. Perhaps it is time to do a bit of our own marketing at home, teaching the truth about nutrition and living it out by example. This will mean implementing changes in our own personal eating habits - adjustments that may be difficult at first - but as the body begins to move towards health and well-being, the rewards will be priceless. Remember: Change is only a decision away!


MCDONALDS BOASTS ABOUT NUTRITION (REALLY)

From "Fast Food Nation" to "Super Size Me," McDonalds has become the go-to villain in the United States obesity drama.

Not willing to become the de facto whipping boy, the company best known for its indulgent burgers and greasy fries has already added salads, fruits and other new menu options. Now, it's defending the rest of its food lineup as well.

The "what we're made of" campaign includes TV commercials, in-store promotions and a Web site boasting about its beef, chicken and other basic ingredients. In the coming weeks, the company also plans to add billboards and expand the Web site to include more information about cooking methods, suppliers and other practices.

Molly Starmann, McDonalds director of U.S. marketing, said the company hasn't changed the farming or preparation methods that have drawn so much criticism. The point of the campaign, she said, is simply to provide more information about what the company already does.

"Our customers love the taste of our food and they just had some questions about how it's created," she said.

The most striking thing about the campaign is that it exposes what the company is up against. Click on lettuce, and McDonalds will tell you that it washes its lettuce "at least twice." Under eggs, it notes that they are delivered to stores twice a week.

Forget quality or taste - if a company has to dispel the myth that it doesn't follow basic hygiene practices, it's obviously in for an uphill battle.

Still, some of McDonalds attempts to inform are strikingly uninformative. Click on "potatoes," and you'll get a blurb about why fries have salt on them. That's not exactly going to answer burning questions about food production, healthfulness and what exactly is meant by the ingredient "natural beef flavor (wheat and milk derivatives)." Under tomatoes, the company only discloses what kind it likes to use in salads.

Elsewhere on the site, McDonalds lets you build a meal and see its nutritional value and ingredients. Nutrition information also can now be found on the back of the companys tray liners and on other packaging.

McDonalds deserves credit for having the guts to make such information easily accessible, even if eaters may well cringe at the high fat content - including trans fats - and unpronounceable ingredients.

For example, parents may not be too pleased to realize that six pieces of Chicken McNuggets contain 15 grams of fat and include the ingredient "dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent." The visual images conjured by the words "antifoaming" in food are plentiful, and none are pretty.

http://adblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/04/22/912157.aspx

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