Comments on: BK Kids Meals – Minneapolis’ Campbell Mithun’s Junk Food Client

By: Lisa @ Corporate Babysitter

Lisa @ Corporate Babysitter — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 02:43:15 +0000

Dorothy, I don’t know where you read that Ed believe parents have no responsibility in choosing what their kids eat. I think he was pointing out the difference between what corporate Burger King pledges to do and what they really do in practice. And even though it’s not Burger King’s job to make or sell healthy food to kids, I think it’s okay to question the company’s ethics, since “advertising” healthy foods — a noble effort — doesn’t really mean that anyone’s purchasing them. Finally, Ed doesn’t really need to write about violent video games or any other nasty things marketing to kids just because he wrote about cheeseburgers (which is a topic he knows something about). It’s his blog. I’m not going to demand that you comment on corporate tax deductions that Burger King gets for their marketing budgets, now am I?

By: Dorothy

Dorothy — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:08:05 +0000

I am so sick of people trying to find a scapegoat for everyone else’s poor decision-making these days! What, are parents to have NO responsibility anymore for their own children and relinquish all control over what their kids eat to the media? Last time I checked, Campbell Mithun wasn’t paying someone from the agency to come out your house in Bloomington, pick up your kid, take her/him into a Burger King restaurant and seduce them into odering a double cheeseburger and fries. I agree that fast food is the root of all evil, and that kids are exposed to it way too much. But it’s their PARENTS who are putting in in their mouths, not the ad agency for crying out loud. Parents do have the right to say no, and need to be held accountable to fulfill their duties as parents and exhibit some control and influence! Is the next generation supposed to learn everything and be driven to their goals in life strictly from watching TV? Are parents becoming obsolete? God, I hope not!

And I don’t know about you, but it’s refreshing to see someone in this food industry, kids’ marketing especially, actually ADVERTISING the HEALTHY choices, versus peddling the worst-for-you thing on the menu to get you in the door, only showing the healthy choices in the fine print when you get there. Like the veggie burger… they should be advertising that to adults, but they advertise the $1 double cheeseburger instead. BK should be getting credit for actually trying to do something good in the grand scheme of things, in this industry.

If you’re gonna attack BK and CM, you have to give equal consideration to everyone else out there who actually ARE selling BAD choices to kids. And what about those violent video games marketed to kids? I’d rather hear my kid ask me for a cheesburger than for a video game that allows him to play in a fantastical world where he can chop someone’s head off. Let’s talk about what’s REALLY morally wrong out there these days. Eating and having the ability to choose where & what you eat is morally wrong? Give me a break.

By: Unplanned Cooking

Unplanned Cooking — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:28:52 +0000

Kids meals should never be supersized.

By: robin marty

robin marty — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:55:56 +0000

I cant even begin to explain how much the hershey thing on the milk irks me. On the *very* rare occasion that we eat at a fast food burger place (almost always limited to being on the road traveling for vacation), we don’t buy our child a kid meal but have her eat a small portion of my meal (better for both of us). But I’m always going to have to buy her a milk, since she doesn’t drink soda or fake juice. Even though she’s only 2, she knows exactly what that logo means, and if I give her a milk with that on there she is going to freak out if it is not chocolate like promised. Which means either a two year old tantrum in public, or getting her the chocolate milk. At least now I am forwarned to grab the milk before she sees it, pour it in a cup and toss the bottle.

Oh, who am I kidding. We’ll just keep eating at subway when we have to eat fast food, like always.

By: The Other Mike

The Other Mike — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:50:53 +0000

“mealtime as playtime”
…great, so that is their foundation from which they base both these meals and their ads. Explains a lot…like how most FF restaurants are filled with unruly kids.

I wonder how many years it takes to break this conditioning? Or is it the FF world just the gateway into the sports bar set…where it takes their first heart attack (or third trip to rehab, whichever comes first) to break that conditioning.