My daughter absolutely loves McDonalds.....All of three, she watches the McDonalds main hai kuch baat advertisement with that look on her face that says ’’Oh wow...I wish I was living there forever!!!!!!’’ She saw the large yellow M and reconized it from a distance when she had barely begun speaking more than a yr ago....All thanks to a couple of well intentioned birthday bashes that we attended at the big M, my daughter is now addicted to what she calls Appy Meel.....
Now what is the Happy Meal really all about....this Happy Meal that aims to make our kids really happy and the parents positively unhappy.....
Its a small colourful bag carton that one gets to take home...Wow.....! It contains a burger (there are choices ofcourse!!!), will include a medium coke and the most widely awaited joy of the day for ur lil one...a TOY!!!!!
Now lets sift through the Happy Meal one by one...
The carton bag is ok...just till ur lil one wants to sleep with it...or carry it to school...After a few visits to the big M, u realize u have a lot of junk lying about ur home that the lil one will refuse to part with...So now I have a couple of hundred such carton carry home bags that I wish the management at McDonalds would be willing to recycle or perhaps exchange for a few free Happy Meals???????
Then comes the medium sized coke...Good too coz afterall kids love their soft drinks....Except that it is more ice cubes than coke really...
The burger....that is the actual ’’meal’’ part of the Happy Meal Package. The veg/non veg/sandwich/salad burger(which actually belongs on a dieter’s menu and not a child’s) are a real and absolute let down. I have been to this restaurant maybe a million times and have never ever seen a single child from the age group of 2-10 ever consume one of these. The burger always has a spicy chutney laced inside that as a adult I find difficult to consume unless drowned with a couple of coke swigs....
Then the TOY.....The single most patiently looked forward to article...desired and dreamt about...I mean I know folks who get their brats to do that important class assignment on the promise of this Happy Meal TOY!!!!!! And could there ever be a worse modus operandi to make utter fools of the parents who buy them...or the kids whose hearts are broken when they touch and hold them.....The toys are cheap chinese ones that actually must cost the manufacturer all of Rupee one or perhaps two....They seem to malfunction the minute you get home from the restaurant. So till your next visit for that ’’other new toy’’ you have to be witness to a heart broken child who actually thought that the flying saucer would fly like it did in the advertisement on television....
Sometimes the toys they give out are an utter laugh...For example the jigsaw puzzles they are giving out these days...A puzzle that I as an adult would also find challenging....And my three yr old bachcha is just too young for it!!!!!! Why don’t they have toys that cater to all age groups of children? Isn’t it because the toy is just really a ploy to trap the young ones...who will cry, throw tantrums and scamper at every available opportunity/outing to grab that toy?????!!!!!!
The worst part of the whole deal is the inflexibility of this package. You cannot say No to the coke in your Happy Meal if your lil one has a cold and exchange it for a small french fries instead...
Not only would I like to condemn in the strongest possible words the marketing strategy of the company, I would also hope and wish that we as parents, would awaken to this form of child expolitation. I have seen my daughter broken hearted too many times now.....