Just about every parent of a small child is familiar with children begging for a McDonald's "happy meal" because the children want the toys that come with the food. One parent decided that she had enough. Monet Parham, a California mother of two, filed a lawsuit against McDonald's, alleging that the fast food giant violated California's consumer protection laws by using toys to advertise its Happy Meals to children.
Parham seeks an injunction preventing McDonald's from continuing its inherently deceptive marketing practices of using toys in its ads. McDonald's has become one of the world's largest toy distributors by packaging toys in its Happy Meals. Many other fast-food restaurants tried to imitate McDonald's practices in an effort to duplicate its success.
Public Health Issue
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nutrition advocacy group, is representing Parham and helped her file the class action suit. CSPI sees the class action suit as the proper method to try to get McDonald's to change its policies. This is because the restaurant's advertising practices contribute to the public health crisis of the rapidly rising childhood obesity rates in the country.
CPSI has had prior success getting large businesses to change marketing behaviors. It threatened Kellogg's Corporation with a similar lawsuit for marketing sugary cereals to children, causing Kellogg's to change its advertising strategy and produce reduced sugar cereals.
Deceptive Advertising
A number of public health officials, parents and lawmakers are frustrated with McDonlald's use of toys in an attempt to lure children into its restaurants to eat high-fat, high-sugar and high-sodium food. The restaurant industry is largely self-regulated and the anit-obesity efforts of those in the industry seem to many to be weak at best. Many restaurateurs have pledged not to advertise to children, but authorities leave it up to the industry to police itself. Additionally, the food industry has a long history of opposing anti-obesity lawsuits and lobbying for laws that prevent plaintiffs from filing such lawsuits.
Lawyers for McDonald's argue that advertising costs will increase for McDonald's if the suit is successful because the restaurant will no longer be able to purchase advertising on a national scale; it will have to create special ads for California. McDonald's tried to remove the case from California state courts into federal court, which many view as more business-friendly than state courts, but a federal judge denied the request.
Restaurants often change marketing programs, however, and it is important that California courts determine whether McDonald's violated state laws. McDonald's should have to answer for the barrage of ads it aims at children.
A lawsuit may not seem like an extreme measure for trying to get a company to stop marketing to children, but in the face of anemic regulations and public officials' inability to take action, it falls to consumers themselves to take action to stop marketing practices that harm the public.
