SubscribeMcDonald's Fresh Salads
McDonald's have created an innovative billboard to advertise their salads.
The words are made entirely from lettuce plants growing on the billboard in Chicago.
If only McDonald's were consistent in their messages; parents are less than impressed with their happy meal advertising.
The Parent's Jury in Australia announced their winner for the Pester Power Ad Award. For the third year in a row it is McDonald's - for their Spongebob Squarepants Happy Meal.
"The message is loud and clear. Parents are fed up having to contend with McDonald's enticing their children to want its food by using free toy giveaways. Parents have enough pressures to deal with these days without this kind of manipulation,"
McDonald's response (source):
"The inclusion of a toy with a Happy Meal is all part of the McDonald's experience to provide a fun environment for families."
So why don't the "Fresh Salads" come with a toy?
More like this in Fast Food · Oct 5, 2007
Makes me want to go up and pick 'em. I wouldn't touch a McD's salad with a 10-foot pole, but I have to give them props for a clever advert.
ReplyGreat ad! But in the back of your mind you wonder: if I have trouble keeping the lettuce plants in my backyard green and growing, what did McDonald's put on these plants to make them stay green on a billboard???
And is that something I want inside my body...
ReplyActually, if you just ask McDonalds for a toy, you can get it with whatever you order ... maybe not water.
ReplyHa.
ReplyBob makes a good point.
Clever concept but McDonalds running a "we're healthy" campaign makes me shudder.
This gets back to a lot of issues regarding demand. McDonalds will produce, market, and sell what the market will bear - when consumers stop eating all that crap, we may see a dramatic change in the fast food landscape.
The trick is to be smarter than the advertising - it's really not that hard.
That IS a brilliant ad, but isn't that the problem with McDonalds? Their marketing is a little too clever? (ie: happy meal toy).
And the salads aren't so bad, if you skip the crutons and the dressing. But, they're pretty nutritionally deficient because they use too much iceberg lettuce.
ReplyI do believe McDonalds salads are healthy to a point but maybe we people ask why do we feel they are unhealthy. This is always an interesting question as is McDonalds unhealthy or are people unhealthy. The food options are getting bigger with a large variety now but it is hard to put down McDonalds when the problem is the people eating the food.
If you want to lose weight where do you eat? No would say McDonalds but people still go there and get mad when they can not lose weight and actuall gain weight instead. 15 to 20 years ago McDonalds was just a snack food place and even though they super sized the food people were happy about it. If people were mad do you think they would do that? No!
If people believe McDonalds is in the wrong than don't eat there as you are in control of your body so you should make the choice. Sorry if this is a little up front but it is what I believe.
ReplyI believe in personal choice, but I also believe in having some force that can run counter to over 1 billion dollars McDonald's is spending annually telling the world what a happy and fun place they are.
(A little fact: do you know that in Beijing, McDonald's and KFC are trendy places to eat? I've heard from my Chinese students that McD's is the place to have a date. The restaurants are clean, they're air conditioned, and you get free refills on coffee. And, their crispy chicken leg sandwich is very popular.)
ReplyI actually don't mind McD's salads if I'm in a pinch for something to eat and there are no other options (or if I'm with friends that actually WANT to eat there). I just skip the cheese and only use a little bit of the dressing pack.
I remember McD's having a "Grown Up" happy meal at some point...you could get a salad, a medium diet soda/bottled water and a pedometer. It was kind of a neat idea, but I don't know why it didn't last. And yes, you CAN buy the McD's toys without getting the happy meal. I worked at McD's for a couple of months when I was in high school during the "mini beanie babies" craze and lemme tell you...I had people buying mini beanies all the time and they weren't all kids. I think back when we were kids, we only liked the Barbie and Hot Wheels toys in the happy meals, so we only begged our parents to get us a happy meal when those toys were running. I don't even think we ate the actual food...maybe the chicken nuggets, but the fries were always cold.
ReplyThe brand is damaged. M is not a reasonable choice for anyone who cares about their health, their kid's health, or even the environment. Only the lowest class people eat there. If there goal is to reach outside of the working class and welfare class, they are going to have to offer LESS of the dangerous garbage. In other words: it's ghetto food at this point.
ReplyI take it your a non working person?
ReplyI happen to like McD's so I guess that makes me low life?
I dont know what your eating but if it develops the kind of brain cells your sporting friend, I'll stick with my greasy frenchfries and yes my Happy meal tyvm.
I wish they'd take some of that tasty-looking lettuce off the billboard and put it in their salads! I remember when these "premium" salads first came out. They had a huge marketing campaign saying that they contained "17 different kinds of lettuce" and I seem to recall that they also said that they either wouldn't contain iceberg at all, or would only contain a minimal amount of iceberg. Now, it's primarily iceberg and romaine.
Unfortunately, when you write to complain, all you get back is a form letter. typical.
More on topic, it is a pretty cool billboard. I'll tell my relatives in Chicago to look for it.
ReplyHealthy my.....McDonald's salads are covered in sugar. In fact, every item on their menu contains sugar. The last time I had one of their salads, I got pretty sick.
We boycott McD's for other reasons (like lying about the dairy that they cook fries in, they claimed for years it was just vegetable oil...my son could have had an anaphylactic reaction).
A friend dropped one of their apple slices in the car. Days later it still looked fresh :::shudder:::
ReplyI think McDonald has high glycemic index in most cases (big mac, fich mac, exept sallads ut they have sugar) look at Sumo diet I an trying now: AntiSumo diet : http://www.mariuscivilis.com/want-to-lose-fat-do-the-same-as-sumo-wrestlers-only-in-negative-way/
ReplyIs this the first time salads have been introduced in America?
Replyshut up!you all dont know what you are talking about, mcdonalds food isnt supposed to be eaten everyday - only once in a while. so stop complaining about wieght gain if you eat there everyday. people who are critising mcdonalds have nothing better to do
ReplyOh my -- only the lowest class people go there?!? I visit occasionally -- does that make me middle class?
ReplyI agree that the brand is damaged. We wouldn't be questioning the health value of the salads if Starbucks were offering them, and the food/drinks they serve are no better for you than McDonald's.
ReplyOK, kids. (That's you young parents.)
The secret is a cartoon character. When kids see a cartoon character on food, they know they will like it.
So go to a store that sells cartoon stickers, and buy a bunch. Then stick one on a container of food you want your kids to eat.
Either they'll like the food or learn to ignore the stickers. Either way, you win.
Replyso you are telling me that those are real plants up there?
ReplyMcDonald's has a great marketing team, no doubt.
The biggest drawback in ordering and promoting the Mcsalad, isn't the dressing or the type of lettuce etc.. It's the price!
Why is it that I can get a double cheeseburger, fries and a Coke for $3.99 (Canadian) but a healthy salad by itself is more than $5?
It's ridiculous that the most unhealthy fast foods are also the cheapest. I think that the price is even more of a factor to teens, is it any wonder that childhood obesity rates are increasing.
Replychildhood obesity rates rise because ignorant careless parents take their kids to fast food joints for dinner instead of being responsible and preparing healthy home cooked meals for them.
ReplyMcD's is not a health foood store.
Its not a substitute for Mom's kitchen.
If you have a problem with your diet dont eat there. If you do then its your fault.
Mcdonalds are making a good positive healthy choice about this salad thing but they still fatten us with oily digusting salad dressing.Just like Jack in the box they offer us like,10 salad choices.They range from....South Western chicken to Mexican Fiesta!I'll take a plain salad with olive oil please!
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