McDonald's and the Detroit Public Library have teamed up on a program to encourage kids to read more books. Called "Books and Backpacks", the program offers a Happy Meal incentive to kids who check out a book from the Detroit Public Library 5 times. A monthly drawing will also award a lucky participant a backpack and gift certificate to Border's Bookstores.Encouraging kids to read more is a great plan, but using McDonald's food as the incentive is not. McDonald's is appearing to be a good corporate citizen, but actually they are engaging in some really clever marketing to kids. They are hooking young children on their food and hoping to establish a life-long customer at an early age. Even the card that is stamped when they check out their books is a McDonald's bookmark - a marketing tool that the kids will carry with them and look at constantly - dreaming about their free Happy Meal.
McDonald's has come under fire lately for using Children's movie characters in their Happy Meals, most recently in their "Shrek" promotions. Last week it was reported in the L.A. Times that the Center for Science in the Public Interest threatened to sue McDonald's for using toys to market to kids. They noted that a 2006 study by the Federal Trade Commission showed that fast-food companies -- McDonald's foremost among them -- spent $520 million in advertising directed at children. $350 of the spending was on toys that were giveaways to children.
Books or toys, the end result of McDonald's marketing is the same - kids eating food high in fat and salt. Let's continue to promote healthy foods to our children and in our schools. Our children deserve better food than this.
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