Cities Ban Toys from Unhealthy Kids' Meals

Shrek, Iron Man, and Harry Potter figurines seem innocuous enough. After all, toys are what put the happy in Happy Meals. But according to lawmakers and some public health advocates, these fun-loving characters could be making your kids fat.

Earlier this week, San Francisco's Supervisor Eric Mar proposed an interesting new law. The proposed legislation would ban restaurants from offering toys with meals that include too much fat, calories, salt, and sugar. In other words, McDonald's, Burger King, Jack in the Box, and other fast food joints better watch out — they may no longer be able to rely on the latest action figures to attract droves of kids.

San Francisco tends to lead the pack on all things green, healthy, and nutritious. But in terms of anti-toy legislation, the city isn't alone. In  April, California's Santa Clara County adopted a similar law, banning fast food restaurants from including toys and other kid-friendly incentives with unhealthy meals. In June, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) threatened to sue McDonald's if the company didn't stop using toys to promote unhealthy Happy Meals. And even more recently, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood launched a letter-writing campaign asking the Golden Arches to stop including Marvel comic book toys with Happy Meals, claiming that the characters promoted violence.

These campaigns and new laws target toys specifically, but they highlight a much broader issue at play: Using kid-friendly characters to get children hooked on junk food. McDonald's and Burger King may offer real toys with not-so-real meals, but they're certainly not the only purveyors using Barbie, Batman, and Bugs Bunny to pimp products to children. Kids who walk down the snack food aisle at grocery stores see the same lovable characters on food packages that they see on Saturday morning cartoon line-ups. Food manufacturers and restaurants have relied on the multi-billion dollar advertising industry for decades, and they've succeeded to creating a nation of kids hooked on high-fat, sugary foods.

But that addiction can certainly be broken, and here's where I think San Francisco's proposed legislation can really come into play. The proposed law not only bans restaurants from including toys with unhealthy meals, it stipulates that entrees must come with fruits and vegetables in order to offer a toy. Junk food purveyors use kid-friendly characters for evil, but there's no reason these same characters can't incentivize healthy eating. In many cases, youngsters want Chicken McNuggets and an order of fries because that meal comes with a shiny, new Hot Wheels car. If that same car came with, say, a grilled chicken sandwich, apple slices, and sauteed asparagus, kids could have their toy and eat healthy meals, too.

Cartoon and other kid-friendly characters have dominated the junk food industry for too long. It's time to get these guys and gals to switch teams. Sign this petition asking McDonald's to stop using toys to market unhealthy meals to kids.

Photo credit: gadgetdude via Flickr