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Star Wars Teams Up With… Ugh… McDonalds

Posted by majestic on February 3, 2010

Killer At LargeGreat commentary by Killer At Large producer Bryan Young, in the Examiner:

Perhaps I have a different perspective on this than a lot of people, but I’ll explain it and hopefully you’re all with me on this.

Star Wars is doing a Happy Meal promotion with McDonald’s for their Clone Wars series starting Februrary 26th. (More information on that here).  The 8 year old in me jumps for joy. The parent in me is filled with disappointment and disgust.  My kids aren’t allowed to eat food of such poor quality and now I’m going to have to tell them they can’t have these Star Wars toys because I refuse to buy them junk food.

I understand that this makes sense from a marketing perspective, but the problem is that marketing junk food to kids with beloved characters and properties like Star Wars is morally reprehensible.  I spent two years making a documentary about the American obesity epidemic called Killer at Large, and one of the things we found responsible for the sharp rise in overweight and obesity in today’s children is marketing directly to them to get them to nag for food and products that aren’t good for them (like McDonalds Happy Meals). We talked to Ralph Nader, Dr. Susan Linn, and Douglas Rushkoff about the insidious nature of these messages for the film and I’m convinced that they have no place in our culture…

[continues in the Examiner]

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  • Sanger

    Hmm since George Lucas has lost all credibitlity, it comes as no surprise that a douchebag is teaming up with another douchebag (McDonalds re: recent SCOTUS decision that 'super sizes' Corporations as individuals) for pure profit fun.

  • http://www.chermside.com/ Mary

    hahahah. this will really be on the eye of marketing. This is really cool…for me. ;-) Very nice idea I may say. :-)

  • http://tastingsonoma.com/ Deanne Willams

    “marketing junk food to kids with beloved characters and properties like Star Wars is morally reprehensible”…Generally agree with this.

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  • marynorvell

    They used to let people just purchase the toys if that helps any.I'm with you though on how awful their food is though.

  • Sanger

    Awful? Im going with disgusting:)

  • Mok

    here is an idea, go to mcdonalds without your kids, and get the proper number ( however many kids you have ) of happy meals, then take the toys out of the happy meals and give the meals to some homeless hungry people. in the end, your kids are happy, the hungry are fed, and you feel better about yourself.

    unless complaining about the marketing tactics of corporations and the fact you can just go buy star wars toys for your kids from any toy store, but you want free toys with a meal, but want better food for cheap, makes you feel better.

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