An Employment Lawyer's Take on the McDonald's "Human Rights Violation"

Last week I blogged about the "human rights" case involving a worker at McDonald's who was awarded $50,000 because McDonald's, a restaurant, had the audacity of not creating a job for the worker that did not involve handwashing - this despite the fact that in a McDonald's restaurant no such job exists.

In the comments section of my blog there were a few folks who were quite upset with my take on the situation.

They felt that I misunderstood the ruling.

I felt they misunderstood the ruling.

Apparently, the Financial Post sides with my take on the issue as today they weighed in on this "human rights violation".

It was Howard Levitt's Workplace Law column that took on the story.

He too felt that the ruling to "cease the discriminatory conduct or similar conduct and refrain from committing such conduct in the future." meant that McDonald's could no longer insist that their workers wash their hands and commented,

"One might think consumer safety should supercede the right of an employee with unclean hands!"

He also took issue with the notion that McDonald's should have created a job for this worker noting that the tribunal (Ms. Parrack) was well aware that there were no jobs that did not require handwashing,

"This is despite Ms. Parrack's acknowledging all jobs at Mc-Donald's require hand washing and, depending on how busy a section is, any position might quickly take over for another."

and that the Ms. Parrack also agreed that it may not be possible to create such a position.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Levitt has also called for a reigning in of these ridiculous tribunals.

Think Mr. Levitt is wrong?

Well feel free to take it up with him - you can write him at hlevitt(at)langmichener.ca

Before you do so however you should know that Howard Levitt probably knows a bit more than you about workplace law as he is an employment lawyer who practises in seven Canadian provinces, is recognized by the 6th Edition of The World's Leading Labour and Employment Lawyers published by Euromoney, is listed in all editions of The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory as a leader in Employment & Labour Law, and is the author of Canada's leading dismissal text book, The Law of Dismissal in Canada and the recently published The Law of Dismissal for Human Resources Professionals.

Your Human Right NOT to Wash your Hands Working at McDonald's?

In Canada right now there is a great deal of scrutiny being cast on our country's various human rights tribunals.

The tribunals were established to help ensure that complainants who felt they were being discriminated against due to their race or sex could settle their disputes. Unfortunately it seems that over time these tribunals have extended their reach and now try to arbitrate many matters that you might have thought would have been beyond their purvey.

In the case of Ezra Levant, former publisher of the Western Standard, they are trying to quash his freedom of speech. He is being investigated by the Alberta Human Rights Commission for his magazines publication of the Danish cartoons of Muhammad that led to riots in many Muslim countries. He's explicitly detailed his dealings with the courts and regardless of your political bent, it makes for fascinating and frightening reading. I'd start with this post of his and then work your way up from it (January 11th, 2008) in his archives.

So after that long tangent it brings me to Ezra's post from yesterday detailing the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ruling that awarded a McDonald's employee almost $50,000 for apparently violating her "human right" to not wash her hands while she worked there. Here's a brief clip from Ezra's blog,

"Datt wouldn't wash her hands. She just wouldn't -- she said she couldn't. So her employment was terminated. The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ordered that McDonald's pay her not only $23,000 for "lost income", but an additional $25,000 for her "dignity and self-respect". You see, in B.C. a food preparation worker's self-respect trumps a company's commitment to cleanliness. They violated her "human rights".

The $50,000+ penalty -- plus several years of legal fees and medical and rehab experts -- isn't the worst of it. Inventing a "human right" for a worker to go to the bathroom and then to handle meat without washing her hands in between, as an excuse for that $50,000 shakedown isn't the worst of it either.

The worst of it is that the BCHRT has ordered that McDonald's, in paragraph 298 of the decision, to "cease the discriminatory conduct or any similar conduct and refrain from committing the same or similar contravention."

While I'm not trying to diminish the medical condition of the complainant, I would think that certainly a restaurant has the right to fire someone who is unable to wash their hands especially given that it's actually the law as Ezra points out,

"In B.C., McDonald's hygiene policy isn't just a matter of corporate pride. It's a matter of the law -- both the Health Act and the Food Premises Regulations. And then there's B.C.'s Food Protection Guidelines issued by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control."

We live in a strange, strange world.

Bottom line on the matter?

Maybe it'd be best to avoid the McDonald's located on South West Marine Drive in Vancouver.

For a brief overview of this whole issue (human rights tribunals, not the McDonald's case), here's national treasure Rick Mercer's rant on the matter:

Hide, McRibs are Back!

Driving my daughter to school yesterday I noticed a billboard outside McDonald's trumpeting the limited return engagement of the Mc"Rib" to Canada.

You may be wondering why I'm using quotation marks surrounding the word rib.

Well, let's just say it's not really a rib.

It is however made up of pork.

It's basically processed pork pressed into a shape that resembles ribs replete with fake "bones".

That picture up above?

That picture's what a Mc"Rib" looks like when the sauce is washed off.

The picture below?

That's a cross-section closeup.

For more pictures, head over to Fast Food Facts for their full post on Deconstructing McRib.....just don't go on a full stomach.

[FYI: 490 calories, 1,040 mg sodium]

Feng Shui at McDonald's?

Huh?

According to the press release,

"The restaurant combines elements of water located on the exterior of the dining area, symbolizing life and relaxation, with elements of fire and red accents throughout the dining area to symbolize good luck, laughter and light. The dining area also features symmetrically balanced seating arrangements in earth tone shades, pendant lights to warm up the interior, an elevated PlayPlace and three plasma televisions."

Because nothing says Feng Shui like plasma screen televisions?

So why Feng Shui? According to owner/operator Mark Brownstein,

"We chose a Feng Shui design that creates a soothing environment for our customers to better enjoy their dining experience"

Huh?

Dining experience?

People "dine" at McDonald's?

Wouldn't even the weakest definition of "dining" include cutlery?

Only in LA.

[Photo via Eater]

The McTeacher

You've got to hand it to McDonald's, no one can ever say they aren't innovative in ways to integrate themselves into the educational system and healthcare.

Today I'll be serving up McTeachers.

Apparently McDonald's McTeacher night has been around for some time. An article in the San Francisco Chronicle from 2002 reported that it has been around since 2000 and back in 2002 included 2,500 schools in 14 States.

So what happens on McTeacher night?

Well if you're a teacher you end up behind the counter at McDonald's; if you're a student you end up going to McDonald's to order your teachers around; and if you're a school you end up pocketing a percentage of all the cash that exchanges hands.

In 2002 apparently that percentage amounted to $500,000.

One of the teachers interviewed by the Chronicle had some concerns with the program,

"We will be endorsing a product that contributes to the epidemic of childhood obesity and heart disease, even though the state dictates that we teach students to avoid junk food"

Yup.

"This is exploiting teachers for a real, live McDonald's commercial"

Yup.

A quick Google search shows that the McTeacher program is anything but dead with reports from across the USA of successful McTeacher events.

Recently some uproar has hit the press again in Maryland and in Washington where the chair of Montgomery County's Council's Health and Human Services Committee asked,

"Would we have a school fundraiser at a cigarette store?"

I wonder how long until this hits Canada?

The McDiploma

No, it's not another report card scheme like the one I reported on a few weeks ago. Now, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority of England has awarded McDonald's restaurants the right to award the equivalent of an advanced high-school qualification as part of a governmental push to build skills in English youth.

Apparently McDonald's will train "students" in "basic staff management" and in their course work,

"cover everything the 7,000 managers of McDonald’s outlets across the country need to know for the day-to-day running of a McDonald's restaurant; from basic operational requirements to finance, marketing and HR."

Currently in England there are over 1,000 McDonald's restaurants.

Currently in England one in six 11 and 12 year olds is obese as are 1/4 of adults and as recently as two days ago experts in England predicted that obesity will soon be the number one cause of preventable death in their country.

Last week in England it was announced that 372 million pounds were being put aside to combat obesity.

Hmmmmmm, so let me get this straight England. Your country thinks obesity is about to become its number one preventable cause of death, your kids and adults are obese, there are tons of fast food restaurants all over and you've just pledged almost 400 million pounds to work on obesity treatment and prevention and yet you've also gone ahead and officially encouraged your country's obese youth to learn how to open more fast food franchises?

Brilliant?

The McDonald's Report Card

What's the best way for McDonald's to ensure that you spend your hard earned fast food dollars at their cash registers? Hook you when you're young.

McDonald's has had a long history of child-directed advertising, with much of it not in the formal guise of advertisement.

Well, here's a new one - team up with a local school board and offer free McDonald's foods as rewards for good grades.

A number of bloggers have already written about this.

Michael Long from Rudd Sound Bites is,

"worried about how it explicitly links performance and self-esteem with eating fast food"

Marion Nestle from her What to Eat blog was wary about what else was in store from public-private partnerships with the food industry and steered people to the New York Times article which is critical of what they labeled as, "the commercialization of educational culture".

Me, I'm not too upset with McDonald's. As I often remind folks here and in my talks, the food industry's job is to sell food, not to look after your health. While it might to many be an unappetizing and disingenuous way to promote themselves, I really don't think you can fault McDonald's for finding an innovative way to not only get customers through the door, but to link themselves with the tacit endorsement of schools in the promotion of the message that eating at McDonald's is something one should consider so great as to be a reward (and of course not just for scholastic accomplishments but for anything you might feel's worth celebrating with your child).

No, the folks that I'd call to question are the members of the Seminole County School Board, a school board with at least a decade long tradition of selling out to Big Food whereupon according to the New York Times article prior to McDonald's picking up the $1,600 report card printing tab, Pizza Hut used to do it offering a personal pan pizza as a reward and with their logo in place of Ronald.

If anyone is interested in writing to the school board, click right here and you can send an email to all of the members of the board and the board's superintendent, though I'd wager that with all the publicity to date, when this contract runs out, so too will fast food report cards.

Are you a Grease Blotter?

Do you use your napkin to try to blot the grease out of your food?

I've seen plenty of folks blotting away at fast food restaurants (might make an interesting study - how much can physically be blotted out), but I've never seen any of them do this....

Today for Funny Fridays (again, lots of new subscribers this week - Friday's are my day off commentary and my day on Funny.....videos often need to be viewed on site rather than through email subscription...today's is worth a visit) is the best use of McDonald's french fry grease that I've ever seen.

Have a great weekend!

McCarrots?

No, McCarrots don't exist, but if they did, you're kids would be more likely to eat them.

In a study published this month in the Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine we can see proof of the vulnerability of children to advertising.

The study had children taste 5 pairs of identical foods and beverages in packaging from McDonald's and in matched but unbranded packaging and were then asked which one tasted better.

Bet you can see where this is going.

The participants by the way were between the ages of 3 and 5 years old. The foods were McDonald's hamburgers, McDonald's fries, a Chicken McNugget, 3 ounces of 1% milk and baby carrots.

Yes, even carrots wrapped up in McDonald's wrappers were rated as tasting better by this group of children.

As far as I'm concerned there should absolutely be a ban on advertising targeting children and given a child's proven inability to discern truth from advertising that ban should extend beyond simply junk food advertisers but rather to all advertisers. This elegant study certainly confirms that need.

It also makes me wish McDonald's sold baby carrots.

Goodbye Supersize, Hello Hugo-size

In 2004, following the public backlash after the release of the movie Supersize Me, McDonald's discontinued their practice of promoting Supersized portions.

Well guess what? Starting this summer there's a new McDonald's Supersize in town and it's called Hugo.

A Hugo sized soft drink costs only 89cents, is 42oz in size (for us Canadians that means 1.25 litres) and contains over 400 Calories and 31.5 teaspoons of sugar.

Dayna Proud, a McDonald's spokesperson when cornered by the New York Times had this to say about the Hugo,

"People, I believe, tend to drink more during the summer"

and when asked if it were comparable with prior Supersized promotions stated,

"That’s not what this is about, you have to put it in context with the rest of our menu."

Certainly from the ad above, that context is meant to be to buy it alongside an ice cream sunday.

And why Hugo? Because it's meant to make you huge? Because it's so large it makes you want to give people hugs? Because of that character on Lost?

Lastly I wonder if McDonald's will offer apologies to all the Hugos of America whose respective "friends" and bullies now have a wonderful new way to make fun of them.

Make Up Your Own Mind

Ever wonder how McDonald's would answer questions like,

"Why do you target children with unhealthy foods when there is an obesity crisis already?"

and

"Isn't the high level of advertising aimed directly at children questionable and unfair on parents?"

Well then have I got the site for you: Make Up Your Own Mind is actually a McDonald's website run out of the UK where you're allowed to submit any question you want and McDonald's will "answer" it.

I put the word "answer" in quotations because the sites answers are just empty spin doctored responses.

For instance, here's McDonald's answer to the targeting children with unhealthy foods question,

"McDonald’s has always been aware of the context in which it operates and the need for it to meet the requirements of society and customers in the food and experience that it provides. That’s why over recent years, the company has added new choices to its menu, such as Organic Semi-Skimmed Milk, Orange Juice, Vittel Water, Fruit Bags and Carrot Sticks, changed the recipes of popular food items such as Chicken McNuggets to reduce salt, fat and sugar and introduced better nutritional information without undermining the great taste that people know and love. You may be aware that the Food Standards Agency has devised a nutritional model that profiles food by its fat, salt and sugar content and will inform which products can or can’t be advertised directly to children. The majority of Happy Meal items (with the exception of the Cheeseburger, Milkshakes and non-diet fizzy drinks) are all rated as not being high in fat, salt and sugar."

The site's actually a hoot. The questions certainly are candid and the responses really demonstrate the need to duck and bob. Try to think how you might, as corporate McDonald's, answer these questions (taken directly from the site):

How is it that the pictures above the counter in your restaurants look so much better than the food that you supply your customers with? Isn't this blatant misrepresentation?

did u know that your products contain too much salt, sugar and fats? and that all that is not good for our physical bodies?

if you ate McDonald's everyday could you die

On t.v a man ate McDonald's for a whole month and he died. I think it would just kill people if they ate it more than 1 every 2 days. Is it true that your food is full of badness?

Why is it that it has taken the rather large amount of bad publicity for your food to actually start you looking at your menu's? Isn't it just reactive? when surely you have a responsibility to be proactive?

Why do you think you have such a bad reputation - and I mean terrible, you are reviled, ridiculed and abhorred - among educated people int his country (UK)?

More people die each year from illnesses relating to obesity than those relating to smoking. Tobacco companies are banned from advertising but McDonald's are not, whats more the obesity is actively encouraged by way of the 'Make your meal bigger' promotions. How do you feel about this? Guilt?

Anyone know how I could submit, "Answer writer for Make Up Your Own Mind" as a suggestion for a feature on that Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs? Those folks' arms must be pythons from slinging so much bullsh*t.

[Hat Tip: Stefan]

The Shrek Saga Continues

Just a quick update.

The US Department of Health and Human Services has temporarily halted its Shrek public service ads aimed at childhood obesity.

Temporarily?

According to the article I read, US Department of Health Spokesman Bill Hall says they plan to,

"pop them right back up there as soon as the hype for the movie dies down in six weeks or so"

Want to know why it's only a temporary halt?

Because apparently the US Department of Health and Human Services feels it's wrong for their spots to serve as advertisements for the Dreamworks movie, but apparently they don't care if their spots serve as advertisements for McFlurries, something that the Shrek McDonald's campaign is selling.

So basically the US Department of Health and Human Services is uncomfortable with the thought that their anti-obesity campaign might serve to promote the movie whose success they're banking on for recognition, but have no issue with the fact that their campaign might serve to promote the notion that dining at McDonald's is a healthy, US Department of Health and Human Services endorsed choice.

Smart folks those - very clear thinkers.

Shrek says, "Eat a McFlurry"

Remember that news release that McDonald's put out a few weeks ago?

The one that said that Shrek and his buddies would be used to promote "the well-being of children and families" items?

Guess what the Shrek clan, also anti-obesity spokescartoons for the US Department of Health and Human Services, are promoting for McDonald's now?

The Swamp Sludge McFlurry (brownie bits and green M&Ms) and the Minty Mudbath Shake (mint and chocolate) - both absolutely chocked full of well-being for children and families.

Want to know how much well-being's in 'em?

Of course that will depend on the size. Smallest size has about as many Calories as a Big Mac. Largest size, as many as two Big Macs and almost as many as most pre-teen kids burn in a day.

That's some yummy well-being.

Here I've got to bring in the staggeringly stupid, amazingly ignorant or plainly bought quote from child parenting expert and McDonald's Mom's Panel member Dr. Michele Borba again. Here's what she had to say about the McDonald's Shrek campaign,

"I'm impressed with McDonald's worldwide commitment to promote activity, encourage balanced food choices and doing this in a fun and engaging way. This is very consistent with the counsel that the Mom's Panel has been giving McDonald's. It's clear they are listening."

That there Mom's panel's great! I guess Shrek saying have a McFlurry is part of the fun and engaging promotion of balanced food choices. Of course at McDonald's the balance is between between choices that are simply nutritionally lean and thouse that are overtly obesegenic. If that's consistent with the advice of the Mom's panel, that sure is one group of absolutely stellar moms.

Want to know who the stellar moms of the McDonald's Global Mom's Advisory Panel are?

According to the magic of the Google and the press release from McDonald's they are:

1. U.S. Olympic speedskater Bonnie Blair
2. Italian Olympic cross-country skier Stefania Belmondo
3. Christa Kinshofer, an Olympic skier and author from Germany
4. Gao Min, an Olympic diving champion and author from China
5. Keddie Bailey, a full-time mother from England
6. Michele Borba, a childhood development expert and author
7. Maru Botana, a chef and TV cooking-show personality from Argentina
8. Laura Lopez Cano, a Latina artist
9. Kim Carter, a librarian and Parent Teacher Association president

Way to go folks - you sure are making a difference!

Shrek - Obesity Crusader and McNugget Salesman

Here's a story that's been all over the news.

Dreamworks, a company always willing to pimp out its characters to promote fast food, sold the right to the use of Shrek to the US Department of Health and Human Services to promote anti-obesity messages to children.

Sounds good right?

Here's their first video:

They've even got a website where the various Shrek characters talk about ways to improve childhood fitness and health.

Then two days ago, McDonald's announced that they're also sleeping with Shrek and that he and his friends will be involved in McDonald's single biggest promotion of fruit, vegetables and low fat milk.

But don't kid yourself - it's not just about fruit, vegetables and milk. Here's the quote from the press release,

"The campaign showcases a variety of food choices including Premium Salads, Premium Chicken Sandwiches, fun desserts and a Happy Meal featuring Chicken McNuggets(R) Made with White Meat, Apple Dippers (fresh, peeled apple slices with optional low-fat caramel dipping sauce), and low-fat white or chocolate Milk Jugs served in child-friendly containers with Shrek packaging to encourage consumption."

Yup, nothing healthier than deep fried chicken pieces washed down with chocolate milk and fruit dipped in caramel sugar. Oh, and get this, for a limited time they will be selling limited edition 16oz Shrek glasses. That's a healthy serving size!

Want a great quobesity and an example of someone who's been bought?

Straight from the press release,

"I'm impressed with McDonald's worldwide commitment to promote activity, encourage balanced food choices and doing this in a fun and engaging way," noted Dr. Michele Borba, internationally recognized parenting expert, educator, and member of McDonald's Global Moms Advisory Panel. "This is very consistent with the counsel that the Mom's Panel has been giving McDonald's. It's clear they are listening."

Thanks Shrek. Thanks Dreamworks. Thanks sellout Dr. Borba. You're all the greatest.

Let me ask you a question - do you think that the kids (and frankly the parents) who watch commercials from the US Department of Health and Human Services are savvy enough to differentiate the healthy Shrek message from the McDonald's commercials? Do you think that maybe, just maybe, they will simply associate Shrek with health and consequently McDonald's with healthy choices?

An absolute coup for McDonald's.

Will McDonald's Breakfasts Kill You?

It's rare that in one post I get to cover research and Big Food quobesity, but clearly today's going to be a special day.

First the research.

A study published in this week's Journal of Nutrition compared the after effects of eating either a) 830 Calories of high fat McDonald's breakfast items (2 hash browns, 1 Sausage McMuffin and 1 Egg McMuffin) vs b) 820 Calories of low fat sugary breakfast items (Kellogg's Frosted Flakes, skim milk, fat free yogurt, a Kellogg's fruit loop bar and Sunny Delight orange juice). The meals were controlled for salt by having the low fat test group also consume 1,000mg of salt to make things even. Researchers then watched subjects performing "stress tasks" which included arithmetic, public speaking, pain tolerance, and cold tolerance and measured their blood pressure responses throughout.

What was found was that folks with the high fat preload had significantly higher blood pressure responses to all of these stressors along with higher total peripheral resistance. This led the authors to conclude,

"a single high-fat meal may lead to heightened cardiovascular reactivity in healthy, normotensive individuals"

or more simply, high-fat meals may temporarily give high blood pressure to folks whose blood pressures are usually normal.

Frankly the study didn't excite me that much which is why I didn't report on it yesterday. It only had 30 subjects, didn't report how long this effect lasted and really, how stressful is the time immediately following a meal for most folks?

Now the Quobesity.

While the study might not have excited me too much, I absolutely loved McDonald's press release this morning on the matter. Here it is in its entirety though I've highlighted the bits I like best:

"While we appreciate ongoing health and wellness research, we're disappointed that this preliminary study does not tell the whole nutrition story at McDonald's and makes broad conclusions based on only one combination of menu items.

At McDonald's Canada, we're proud of our food and have been a leader in serving quality breakfast options for more than 30 years. We have always believed in the sound nutritional principles of balance, variety and moderation and that McDonald's can be part of any balanced, active lifestyle.

The breakfast combination used in the report provides only a small example of a much larger menu from which to choose. For example, many of our customers do enjoy a balanced breakfast consisting of an Egg McMuffin, Fruit 'n Yogurt Parfait and small orange juice, all of which combine elements from the four food groups and fall within recommended daily values as outlined in Canada's Food Guide.

We're always listening to our customers and have been a leader in providing them with complete nutrition information, both in our restaurants and online at www.mcdonalds.ca, to help them make responsible choices that are right for them and their lifestyles."

McDonald's you guys are the best. Thank you for looking out for me and my family. I know our health means much more to you than your bottom line and your press release this morning certainly proves that. Please ignore all of those naysayers who get mad at small things like exploitative advertising targeting children, portions that are larger than anyone could argue are healthy and the overt hucking of larger sized foods as being of great value. You guys are the Kings and Queens of nutritional advocacy - don't let anyone ever tell you different.

(FYI: If you think the meal consumed at McDonald's was excessive and not representative of McDonald's breakfasts you might be right - some have more Calories and more fat. Eat the McDonald's Deluxe Breakfast pictured at the top of this post and according to the McDonald's website you'll be having 1,380 Calories with 67 total grams of fat including 13 grams of trans fat. YUMMY! Think it's a coincidence that the item ID on the hyperlinked URL is 6666?)

Dr. Dean Ornish Shills for McDonald's?

I never thought I'd see the name Dean Ornish linked with McDonald's, but then I guess I'd never looked.

Sure enough, if you wander around McDonald's website there's a page by Dr. Ornish with tips on heart health.

Dr. Ornish, founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, has made a name for himself promoting lifestyle change in the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease. One of the basic tenets of Dr. Ornish's work is the adoption of a diet extremely low in saturated fat.

Why then would Dr. Ornish lend his name to McDonald's?

Dr. Ornish, on his own site, advocates for diets that contain less than 10% of daily Calories from fat.

He notes in a talk available here, that by helping corporations steer customers to healthier choices, he's making a positive difference. He specifically cites the salads at McDonald's as being very beneficial.

Looking at the salads at McDonald's, depending on how you order them, many have as much fat as a quarter pounder and almost as many Calories.

In fact, order chicken in any of your salads, including the Asian salad he notes in the aforementioned talk, and you'll likely reach your entire day's Dean Ornish limit for fat intake.

Dr. Ornish also reports working with ConAgra (Kentucky Fried Chicken) and Pepsi Co.

I don't understand how Dr. Ornish is comfortable working for these corporations when without a doubt, he counsels his own patients not to eat there.

My guess?

Big Food has big pockets.

A Terrifically Bad Snack

McDonald's has just launched a new "Snack" food.

Called the Snack Wrap and specifically designed to be eaten with one hand while gripping the steering wheel with the other, this Franken-Snack contains 330 calories and includes 4.5grams of saturated fat, 1gram of trans-fat and a staggering 780mg of sodium (more than 30% of daily recommended values).

Again, I never knock corporations for giving consumers what they want because that's their job, but I do find it remarkable that only one day after McDonald's announced that it was replacing it's frying oils with trans-fat free versions, that they release a product containing trans-fat.

To read more about McDonald's and it's corporate drive, read this great article in business week on how McDonald's has managed to continue it's incredible market growth.

A great quote in the article comes from James Skinner, McDonald's CEO,

"We've learned. We've evolved. We believe we've cracked the code in the United States. It's a simple secret, actually: Americans like to eat all day long."

A very simple secret indeed.

It's easier to die than to win at McDonald's!

Hat tip to Fast Food News for their expose on just how unlikely you'll win anything good playing the returning McDonald's Monopoly promotion.

To win even the smallest prize (a small McFlurry, a medium fries or a breakfast sandwich) your odds are 1 in 7.2 (that's seven nutritious trips to McD's!)

It gets more fun when we forget about the food and move on to the bigger ticket items.

Your odds of winning a Sony home theatre and flat panel HDTV are 1 in 91,697,000!

Your odds of winning a trip to Vegas are 1 in 114,621,250!

Your odds of winning a $50,000 prize are 1 in 3,500,000,000!

Your odds of winning the $5,000,000 grand prize are 1 in 41,497,391,309!

To put this in perspective for you I turned to the National Safety Council.

Buckle your seatbelts; you are 4,994 times more likely to die in a car accident this year than win the TV.

Hold onto that bannister; you are 625 times more likely to die falling down stairs this year than win the trip to Vegas.

Maybe drinking's not so fun; you are 4,729 times more likely to die from accidentally choking on your own vomit this year than win the $50,000.

and lastly....

Maybe move to Slovenia; you are a staggering 2,529,865 times more likely to get murdered this year than win the $5,000,000 grand prize.

Ain't stats grand?

McDonald's donates $2 million for obesity research

Today McDonald's, in reference to the problem of childhood obesity reported that they "felt we needed to get greater education in this area" and therefore decided to donate $2 million in obesity research funding to the Scripps Institute.

Now by no means am I bashing McDonald's for funding research, nor am I bashing them for wanting to know more about childhood obesity, or even for the way they make their money.

I am however shocked that they feel the need to donate $2 million to help them to understand how they might play a greater role in the prevention of childhood obesity.

Without even wading into the debate about marketing food to children, how about they simply start dramatically reducing the portion sizes and calories counts of their children specific foods?

Hey, McDonald's, if you'd like to pay me even just $200,000 I'll help you out...anyone over there reading this? Anyone?

Are you ready for the McGym?

So on July 7th in Whittier California, McDonald's opened up the "R Gym"

"Equipped with stationary bicycles attached to video games, dance pads, basketball hoops, monkey bars, an obstacle course, and a host of other games, the R Gym is intended to provide a fun, easy and convenient way for children to increase their physical activity."

Well at least they're not trying to suggest that it will help combat childhood obesity, though they do state,

"McDonald's is committed to educating its customers about balancing food consumption and physical activity."

I wonder then if they'll educate customers that in order to "balance" that Happy Meal at the R Gym, they'd better budget at least 75 minutes of time for their children to pedal furiously because the 600 average Happy Meal calories will take over an hour of vigorous activity to burn off.

Somehow, I doubt they'll tell their patrons that.