McDonald's Faces Happy Meals Lawsuit

As it threatened in June, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has filed suit against McDonald's, charging that its Happy Meals use cheap toys as "bait" to lure children into gorging on "unhealthy junk food."

The suit, which seeks class action status, was filed in California on behalf of Monet Parham, a Sacramento mother who said the Happy Meals make it "so much harder" for her to say no when her children beg her to take them to McDonald's.

If Ms. Parham lived in San Francisco, CSPI would have had to find another plaintiff. That city's Board of Supervisors voted last month to limit toy giveaways in children's meals deemed to have excessive calories, sodium and fat. Santa Clara County did likewise.

When the Santa Clara County ordinance was passed, county supervisor Ken Yeager told The Los Angeles Times that it would "prevent restaurants from preying on children's love of toys."

CSPI founder Michael Jacobson, who claims to have invented the phrases "empty calories" and "junk food," said "multi-billion-dollar corporations make parents' job nearly impossible by giving away toys and bombarding kids with slick advertising."

The group went so far as to compare McDonald's with a child molester in a statement.

"McDonald's is the stranger in the playground handing out candy to children," said CSPI litigation director Stephen Gardner. "It's a creepy and predatory practice that warrants an injunction."

McDonald's, back in June, responded that parents have the primary responsibility for policing their children's diet and said that it has steadily added more nutritionally worthwhile foods to its menu.

"McDonald's is committed to a responsible approach to our menu, and our Happy Meal offerings. We have added more choice and variety than ever before, a fact that has been widely reported and recognized," the company said.

But CSPI begs to differ.

The non-profit, Washington-based group says that while Happy Meals advertising shows "glimpses of healthier products, such as Apple Dippers and low-fat milk, the default options put into Happy Meal by McDonald's employees are usually French fries and sugary sodas."

As far as we know, the White House has not taken sides in the dispute, although First Lady Michelle Obama has been urging children to eat fresh, locally-grown food, particularly vegetables, by which she presumably does not mean fries.

Sarah Palin, on the other hand, has let it be known that in her view, parents should take responsibility for supervising their children's diets.

"Should it be the government or should it be the parents?" Palin said in recent speech. "It should be the parents."

This is hardly the first time that McDonald's has faced a potential nutrition-related lawsuit. In 2005, the company settled a suit concerning its use of trans fats, agreeing to pay $7 million to the American Heart Association and another $1.5 million for a public advertising campaign alerting the public to the dangers of those fats.

In 2008, the company announced that it would begin cooking its fries and other baked items with a new, zero-trans-fat oil.