Stupid: 'Food Liberation Army' Takes Ronald McDonald Hostage

Someone needs to get these guys a Happy Meal.

Campaigners for ethically-produced food provoked fury today by releasing an Al Qaeda-style spoof video in which they are seen holding Ronald McDonald hostage.

Five members of the Finnish group, who call themselves the Food Liberation Army, are seen in black balaclavas with the fictional McDonald's figurehead distinctive in the foreground, despite wearing a hood.

The spokesperson threatens to execute the character if the fast food chain refuses to answer questions about how it produces its products.
McDonalds told MailOnline today that the stunt was irresponsible and 'in very poor taste'. It also denied the campaign group's suggestion that it was attempting to hide details about its food quality and manufacturing processes.

A spokeswoman said: 'McDonald’s is always available to engage in constructive conversations with our customers, stakeholders and the media.

'This stunt is in very poor taste and not a responsible approach to meaningful dialogue.

They might kill Ronald McDonald. But there are an army of Ronalds to take his place.

Stupid: 'Public Interest' Group Sues McDonald's Over Happy Meals

Why do these people hate children so much? What do they not understand about the word happy? This assault on freedom began with the kooks in San Francisco and now has inevitably led to a lawsuit.

McDonald’s Corp., the world’s biggest restaurant chain, baits, exploits and ultimately harms children by offering toys with its “Happy Meals,” a Washington-based consumer advocacy group claimed in a lawsuit.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, in a complaint that its litigation director Stephen Gardner said was filed today at a state courthouse in San Francisco, accuses the company of deceptive marketing and business practices. The filing could not immediately be confirmed.

“I don’t think it’s right to entice children into wanting Happy Meals with the promise of a great toy,” plaintiff Monet Parham said today in a telephone interview. The case was filed by her on behalf of her 6-year-old daughter, Maya.

Right, like the six-year-old has the slightest clue what's going on. But it's typical of these people to shield themselves behind little kids.

Look, my kid enjoys Happy Meals as much as the next kid, but even he knows the toy is a throwaway for the most part and it might occupy him during his meal and on the way home. Beyond that, unless it a car giveaway tied to a movie, he's probably never going to play with it again, so unless your kid is deprived at home, he or she isn't going to think some cheap piece of plastic is a "great toy." Let's face it, the kids want the burger or nuggets along with the fries. They're there to eat, not to stock up on toys. As for this Parham woman, if she had the slightest clue and wasn't looking for a payday she'd understand she can opt to not have the toy, or take her kid elsewhere.

Parham, 41, lives in California’s capital, Sacramento, and said she is a state employee.

“We are proud of our Happy Meals and intend to vigorously defend our brand, our reputation and our food,” the company said in an e-mailed statement responding to the lawsuit.

“Parents consistently tell us they approve of our Happy Meals,” McDonald’s said, adding that the company is “confident” parents recognize the meals as “a fun treat, with quality, right-sized food choices for their children that can fit into a balanced diet.”

The center seeks class-action, or group, status on behalf of all of the state’s children under 8 years of age who have seen marketing for the company’s packaged children’s meals since December 2006.

It also seeks an order barring the company from continuing to promote meals featuring toys on television, billboards and in its restaurants. There is no demand for money damages.

“The lawsuit is about the change, not the money,” Gardner said in a phone interview.

Sure it is.

I hope McDonald's countersues for harassment and legal fees. That would put an end to this nonsense.

By the way, I've noticed Wendy's and Burger King also give away toys to kids. Why are they not being sued?

Update: To no surprise, there's an obvious political agenda here.

Much of the interviewing press was happy to treat Monet Parham as a random (if oddly well-informed) California mom, but it didn’t take the blogosphere long to discover that she is apparently anything but random. Ira Stoll, who blogs at Future of Capitalism and used to put out the New York Times-tweaking smartertimes.com, soon discovered (via a commenter) that she is in fact the same person as Monet Parham-Lee, who is a “regional program manager” on the state of California payroll for child nutrition matters.

Specifically, she works on a federally funded program that campaigns to exhort people to eat their vegetables and that sort of thing. The comment:

“Interestingly, her name has been scrubbed from the website of Champions for Change, the Network for a Healthy California. She has given numerous presentations and attended conferences on the importance of eating vegetables and whatnot.

“She presents herself as an ordinary mother. She is not. She is an advocate, and an employee of a California agency tasked with advocating the eating of vegetables. To the extent that Monet Parham-Lee has EVER taken her daughter to a McDonald's, she should have known better.”

Here's her bio.

Name: Monet Parham-Lee, MPH
Title: Regional Program Manager
Organization: Network for a Healthy California, CA Dept. of Public Health
Address:1616 Capitol Ave
City: Sacramento State: CA Zip Code:95814
Phone: (916) 552-9906
Email: monet.parham-lee@cdph.ca.gov
Monet Parham-Lee serves has a Regional Program Manager within the Network for a Healthy California; a program of the California Department of Public Health funded by the USDA-Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly the Food Stamp Program). She spends most of her time at the Network providing consultation, technical assistance and on-going support for the Regional Networks which facilitate the full integration of a variety of State Network-level functions on the regional level, bringing services and support closer to Network-funded projects and partners serving the low income audience. Ms. Parham-Lee also serves as the Network's lead staff person on early childhood matters, working closely with several Network funded Statewide Leadership Projects focused on early nutrition and physical activity. Prior to joining the Network, she worked in a variety of health services, childrens services, and public health programs at the State-level, as well as with the Greater Sacramento Urban League.

Yet she's treated as just some average run of the mill mom. Good grief.

Update II: This big lie has made it halfway around the world already and the media are acting as willing accomplices in this fraud.

Here's the "concerned mother":

Return to Happiness? SF Mayor to Veto Ban on Happy Meals

It won't be long until there are marches in the streets protesting this brave move by Gavin Newsom, who's finally done something sane. Of course it's meaningless since the Board of Supervisors are calling the shots.

Mayor Gavin Newsom will veto the city's ban on most McDonald's Happy Meals with toys on Friday.

The mayor has scheduled an event at Fairmount Elementary School at 2:45 p.m. ET, where he will also release a report outlining the city's efforts to combat childhood obesity, his office said.

The San Francisco, California, Board of Supervisors approved the ban on Tuesday.

The ordinance requires McDonald's and other fast-food servings with toys to meet new nutritional standards.

Newsom had indicated he would veto the law. That veto would be meaningless because the board approved the ordinance 8-3, a veto-proof margin. With eight votes, the board could override the veto.

The new law, which San Francisco officials hope other cities will adopt in battling a child obesity epidemic, was a defeat for McDonald's, which led the fight against the measure.

I wouldn't quite call it a "defeat" for McDonalds. More like a defeat for sanity.

The new law addresses how toys and other marketing freebies entice kids to buy fast-food meals that are high in fat and calories, said Supervisor Eric Mar. He initiated the proposal because his fifth-grade daughter is in the 6-to-11 age group that has seen obesity rates quadruple over the past 30 years, the same time that the Happy Meal has been on the market.

"This is a simple and modest policy that holds fast food accountable," Mar said.

This is what's it's come to. These clowns re-elect Nancy Pelosi by overwhelming margins yet they hold food accountable.

McDonalds Now Targeting All-Important Young French Gay Male Market or Something

I was unaware McDonalds heretofore wasn't gay friendly or in fact gave a second thought as to the sexuality of their customers. Always figured fast food was a place anyone could go to to pop in quickly for some meat. Sorry, couldn't resist. Anyway, they don't seem to have thought out their slogan here of Come As You Are, since that'll naturally invites wisecracks as well.

The father in this spot seems blissfully unaware the kid is gay and longing for something a little more filling than a Big Mac. Or maybe it's Big Mac he's pining for, IYKWIMAITYD.

Killjoy California Buzzards Want to Ban Happy Meal Toys

The end of happiness

To borrow one of the left's most cherished cliches: How mean-spirited! So under the guise of "protecting the children" they'll just create a bunch of unhappy ones.

How special.

The latest target in the battle over fast food is something you shouldn't even put in your mouth.

Convinced that Happy Meals and other food promotions aimed at children could make kids fat as well as happy, county officials in Silicon Valley are poised to outlaw the little toys that often come with high-calorie offerings.

The proposed ban is the latest in a growing string of efforts to change the types of foods aimed at youngsters and the way they are cooked and sold. Across the nation, cities, states and school boards have taken aim at excessive sugar, salt and certain types of fats.

Believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, the proposal would forbid the inclusion of a toy in any restaurant meal that has more than 485 calories, more than 600 mg of salt or high amounts of sugar or fat. In the case of McDonald's, the limits would include all of the chain's Happy Meals — even those that include apple sticks instead of French fries.

Supporters say the ban would encourage restaurants to offer more-nutritious foods to kids and would make unhealthful items less appealing. But opponents believe it amounts to government meddling in parental decisions. The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors will consider the proposal Tuesday.

Even though it's largely symbolic — the proposed ban would apply only to the dozen fast-food restaurants within the jurisdiction of the board — the proposal has caused a bit of an uproar on the Internet, where comments on YouTube and other sites say it is another example of the "nanny state" gone wild.

No kidding. What a bunch of miserable cretins.

The California Restaurant Assn. has taken out full-page newspaper advertisements against the proposed ordinance in local newspapers. One shows a little girl with her hands cuffed behind her back as she holds a stuffed animal.

Another opponent wrote in a YouTube posting, "I want to know when the pitchforks and torches and rope is going to come out.... We need to run these Frankenstein politician monsters the hell out of town!"

'This Clown is No Friend to our Children or Their Health'

Evil Clown

You know what the folks at McDonalds should do in response to this? Add some bacon to the menu.

Hey, Ronald McDonald, it may be time to retire.

Nearly half of Americans polled want the kid-friendly, French-fry chomping icon to call it quits, arguing he contributes to the country's growing obesity epidemic by luring youngsters to fast food joints.

"This clown is no friend to our children or their health," said Deborah Lapidus of Corporate Accountability International, a group that sponsored the poll and protests outside McDonald's around the country.

"He is a deep-fried Joe Camel for the 21st century," she said.

Many of those surveyed had favorable feelings about red-headed Ronald, yet 47% thought it was time for him to go.

But a protest outside McDonald's in Times Square Wednesday didn't sour kids on Ronald.

"He's getting old, but I like Ronald," said 13-year-old Rosemary Frias of the Bronx, who was eager to munch on chicken nuggets and fries. Ditching Ronald, she said, won't "stop kids from getting fat."

An novel though, perhaps, but that maybe is the responsibility of parents, no?

McNugget Rage Strikes Again

Last year we had this nutcase in Florida call 911 three times because McDonalds ran out of McNuggets. Now an Ohio woman tried to take matters into her own hands and punched out the drive-thru window when denied her munchies of choice.

What exactly is in these McNuggets that drives the women crazy?

An East Toledo woman became so enraged that chicken nuggets were not available at a Toledo McDonald's that she punched through the drive-thru window.

Toledo Police say Melodi Dushane, 24, stopped at the fast-food restaurant at Front and Main Streets in East Toledo Friday and asked for chicken nuggets. When the drive-thru attendant told her the item was not available, Dushane punched through the window.

Dushane was treated at Mercy St. Charles Hospital for her injuries and then incarcerated at the Lucas County Jail.

In court on Saturday, Dushane pleaded not guilty to a felony vandalism charge. She was released from police custody on her own recognizance and is scheduled to be in court next on Jan. 28.

Is it just me or does Melodi look like Chloe Sevigny on a severe bender?

Man Calls 911 Over Missing Juice Box

Geez, I could see if they left out his Angus Burger or a large fries, but dude, it's just four ounces of juice.

A man who called 911 to complain that McDonald's left a juice box out of his drive-through order was arrested on Monday, Portland television station KPTV reported.

Raibin Osman appeared before a Washington County judge Tuesday on a charge of misusing emergency services. He said he called emergency dispatchers after the drive-through employee wouldn't come back to the window to give him a juice box.

"We ordered some food and we went home and our order wasn't in there," Osman said in the 911 call. "And my little brother is crying for his orange juice."

Osman's father, Raof, said the emergency call was an innocent mistake and that it escalated when the McDonald's employee laughed at the poor English of his son-in-law.

"We came back with our receipt and said, 'Hey, can we have our order? We paid for it,'" Osman told the emergency dispatcher. "And she was like, 'Oh, no, I can't do anything about it.' And she was laughing at my brother-in-law because he ordered the food and couldn't speak English right."

Meanwhile, the McDonald's employee also called 911 after feeling threatened by the men.

"I showed them that everything was correct and they got mad and told me to give them more food," the employee said in the 911 call. "And I told them, I can't give any free food away."

No doubt the ACLU will be called in for the inevitable lawsuit.

Windfall Profits for Big Burger

Thus they become an immediate target of the federal government. Oh wait, they've already been hounded for years. But in these tough economic times and the new era of responsibility, it's just not fair they're making money while others suffer, right? Heck, they even weathered a 23% drop in the fourth quarter.

US fast-food giant McDonald's said Monday its 2008 net profit soared 80 percent from a year, lifted by growing demand from consumers seeking low-cost meals in a deepening global recession.

Net profit for the full year totaled 4.3 billion dollars, compared with 2.3 billion in 2007, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company said in a statement.

Excluding exceptional items, earnings per share were 3.76 dollars, widely exceeding consensus market forecasts of 3.63 dollars.

The robust annual results came despite a sharp 23 percent decline in fourth-quarter net profit to 985 million dollars, from 1.273 billion in the 2007 fourth quarter. Fourth-quarter earnings per share were 87 cents, above expectations of 83 cents.

"2008 was a strong year for McDonald's," chief executive Jim Skinner said in the statement.

"Through our strategic focus on menu choice, food quality and value, the average number of customers served per day increased to more than 58 million in 2008."

Can you imagine the reaction if an oil company announced an 80% increase in profits in one year? Senate hearings would begin by Tuesday morning as sneering liberals preened for the cameras and castigated the executives for their heartlessness.

Still, I imagine some camera hog will find a way to get some face time with this.