McDonald’s Using Mums To Promote their Junk Food
By Ina Woolcott
McDonald's is giving 6 mums something no outsider in the USA has ever had before - inside access. In a bid to TRY and convince health-conscious mothers its food is nutritious, McDonald's says it will bring the mothers into the company, with nothing being hidden from them. The mothers will be able to visit restaurants, orchards, processing plants and test kitchens. Women's concerns regarding the quality of McDonald's food has been their weakness for years.
Beginning June 20 2007, the moms will keep an online diary for approximately 3 months about what they see - and their feelings. The journal will be posted on the McDonald's website and read by other moms - the company hopes. McDonald's claims it will have no input on what is written by the women.
"We've made a concerted effort to start talking to moms," says director of U.S. marketing. Molly Starmann, "We know she is the gatekeeper in family dining."
Around 48% of women (far too many in my opinion, if that is even an accurate figure) say McDonald's food quality is "excellent" or "very good" compared to the industry average of 68%, according to a 2006 phone and online survey of 14,000 women by Sandelman & Associates, a research firm.
A marketing expert Dori Molitor thinks an online diary makes sense in theory because women, especially mothers, often get information and form opinions by talking with other women.
However, the CEO of Woman Wise, a consultancy specialising in marketing to women, is astonished about this - "This has potential for being very risky. They must have a lot of confidence in their food channel."
McDonald's has called the program Mum's Quality Correspondents. The moms were chosen from 4,000 applicants by Arc Worldwide, a promotions specialist.
Though they are not being paid, McDonald's is paying for their travel. They also were given laptop computers for the program that they will be allowed to keep.
The mothers are aged between 35-42, and all have at least 1 child at home and also had to be at the very least occasional McDonald's customers. The mothers won’t not appear in any McDonald's advertisements.
The women will be journaling and not blogging, meaning consumer responses to their comments will not be posted on the site. (I wonder why?!? How can 6 mums out of the billions of other mums determine the nutritional value of MCDONALDS. HELLO!!) They are free to respond to consumers or to post comments on other blogs however. The mum’s will also appear in videos at www.mcdonaldsmom.com.
Joanna Canizares, is one of the panellists‘. She takes her boys to McDonald's about 2 times a week, although she is concerened about trans fats, she says, because her 8-year-old son is *addicted* to Chicken McNuggets.
Canizares says she knows nuggets may not be the ideal food, but "it's the lesser of two evils" as her son sometimes refuses to eat anything but this. She said "It's better than eating nothing - and at least it has some protein."
(What is this lady thinking? She is continuing to teach her kids that it's OK to refuse to eat simply to go and eat that s*$t. I was never allowed to eat fast foods when I was younger, although as I got older I did OCCASIONALLY. I did have some McDonalds, but I ALWAYS, without fail, got a headache immediately after. I would also feel weighed down, worn out and tired. After several times of this, I NEVER ate there again. I would NEVER give it to my daughter, no matter how much ‘evidence’ were presented. We only eat organic food, no meat (apart from fish) and my daughter has never had sugar, apart from licking my ice cream on 3 occasions on a hot, sunny day but I don’t really like doing it so apart from on those occasions I don’t eat things in front of her I don’t want her to eat. We do eat out occasionally and of course then my daughter eats non-organic foods. And at night, when she is asleep, I sometimes have some chocolate :-))
I wonder if when they visit, the staff change their attitudes and act like they are *concerned* about the health of people. I wonder what tactics will be used to make these mums write good reports!)
Just one french fry is worse for your health than one cigarette, so you may want to consider this before you indulge in your next rendezvous at Macky D’s. One of the best things you can do for yourself and your family is to TOTALLY AVOID fast food restaurants, and take the time to prepare healthy food.
The time you save by consuming fast foods is NOT worth the future health complications it could cause. Stop eating only for convenience for your health.
