Thursday, November 20, 2008

Trust me, I'm a Mom?

“The only obstacle between kids and their french fries: Mom. So here is Debra DeMuth, global nutrition director [for McDonald's], mounting a spirited defense of fries to five mothers of young children at a McDonald's in Baltimore.”

Through the haze of sleep, I was hoping I’d accidentally picked up The Onion. But upon closer inspection, no, still the Washington Post. And the Washington Post was telling me about how McDonald’s is enlisting mothers to chat up how healthy and nutritious their food is. Whhaaaa?

McDonald’s is an easy target for high and mighty people like me, isn’t it? But they deserve it.

This idea of moms as “fast food emissaries” is offensive not only because it feels like McDonald’s thumbing its corporate nose at peoples’ (correct) instinct that, hey, this food is NOT healthy, but also because of the chosen information vehicle. Moms? Really? Have you no shame?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

McDonald's is an easy target, and I'm not yet a mom. However, how can anyone rightfully say that McDonald's is healthy?! I might be the mom to say "everything in moderation" and allow my kids to eat there occasionally, but making the golden arches sound healthy is completely ridiculous. I love the quote in the article where the mom responds to the statement about fries having a lot of potassium by stating that bananas do too.