SF Fast-food toy ban gets supervisors' first OK

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/02/MN111G5PCN.DTL

SF Fast-food toy ban gets supervisors' first OK
Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer
November 2, 2010

San Francisco -- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors gave preliminary approval Tuesday to banning toy giveaways in Happy Meals and similar fast-food offerings aimed at kids unless they have reduced sodium, fat and sugar content and include fruit and vegetables.

The legislation, which sponsors said is intended to promote healthy eating and help combat childhood obesity, was passed on an 8-3 vote - the bare minimum needed to overturn Mayor Gavin Newsom's promised veto.

The board is scheduled to take a final vote next week. If it goes on the books, the restrictions wouldn't go into effect until December 2011.

"This is a tremendous victory for our children's health," said Supervisor Eric Mar, chief sponsor of the legislation.

Siding with him were Supervisors John Avalos, David Campos, David Chiu, Chris Daly, Bevan Dufty, Sophie Maxwell and Ross Mirkarimi. Opposed were Supervisors Michela Alioto-Pier, Carmen Chu and Sean Elsbernd.

McDonald's, the world's largest restaurant chain, took the lead in fighting the proposal.

"Somehow the San Francisco Board of Supervisors just took the happy out of Happy Meals," said Scott Rodrick, who owns 10 McDonald's franchises in the city. "It would be an understatement to say how disappointed I am with this legislation."

He said the restrictions could hurt business and cost jobs if customers cross the San Francisco border for a traditional Happy Meal experience. He and other restaurant industry representatives said parents - not lawmakers - should decide what their children eat.

Mar said that right wouldn't be taken away. Toys, he noted, still would be allowed in meals that meet the healthier nutritional guidelines.

"It's not a ban; it's an incentive," Mar said.

Under the proposed ordinance, restaurants may give away a free toy or other incentive item only if the meal contains less than 600 calories, has less than 640 milligrams of sodium and if less than 35 percent of the calories are derived from fat (less than 10 percent from saturated fat), except for fat contained in nuts, seeds, eggs or low-fat cheese.

In beverages, less than 35 percent of the total calories can come from fat, and less than 10 percent from added sweeteners.

In addition, the meals must contain a half-cup or more of fruit and three-quarters of a cup or more of vegetables. A breakfast meal must contain at least a half-cup of fruit or vegetables.

Mar, who had the backing of the city's public health officials, modeled his proposal after a first-in-the-nation law in Santa Clara County adopted earlier this year that only applies to a handful of restaurants in the county's unincorporated areas. San Francisco's restrictions would affect dozens of fast-food establishments.

Dufty, the swing vote Mar needed to assure a veto-proof majority, said the powerful lure of toys that come with kids meals - and the marketing campaigns that accompany them - puts parents who may want to steer their children toward healthier food choices at fast-food restaurants at a distinct disadvantage.

He pointed to a 2006 survey by the Federal Trade Commission that found that 10 fast-food chains spent $360 million to purchase toys to distribute with the more than 1.2 billion children's meals sold that year.

"I want to encourage these major stakeholders to act now. I think we can take a bold move here and say, you know what, you really need to think about the fact that you can market whole wheat products, you can market carrots," Dufty said.

"If you have to put a Shrek doll with a package of carrots," Dufty added, "maybe that's what you have to do, but there hasn't been a real incentive for this industry to do that, and I think that this legislation in a small appropriate way is a step to say you need to do things differently."

E-mail Rachel Gordon at rgordon@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle

The Happy Meal Turns 30

http://www.parentdish.com/2009/07/20/the-happy-meal-turns-30

The Happy Meal Turns 30
by Brett Singer
Jul 20th 2009

Categories: Eating & nutrition, In the news, Mealtime

The McDonald's Happy Meal is turning 30. Introduced in 1979, this staple of kid-friendly fast-food is now as recognizable as the McDonald's brand itself. The idea of the Happy Meal is so simple: A hamburger, fries and soda served in a cardboard box with a small toy. But it's not the box -- or the food -- that makes the Happy Meal iconic. It's the toys.

The Happy Meal toys are, of course, a stroke of marketing genius. Kids -- and the occasional adult -- will buy meal after meal in an effort to collect all of the toys in a series. And while this results in a lot of plastic Transformers in the back of Mom's car, in some cases, all those Happy Meals pay off: Some of the toys have become collectibles. The most popular Happy Meal item was the Teenie Beanie Babies. According to ABC News, McDonald's sold 100 million Happy Meals featuring the Ty stuffed toy in 1997, sparking "a national craze."

And there's money in Happy Meal toys, too, at least for some people: 11-year-old Luke Underwood of Notts, England, sold his Happy Meal toy collection at auction this spring for $11,000. That's a lot of French fries!

The toys in a Happy Meal aren't necessarily meant to be collectors items, though; they're intended for kids to play with, and carefully screened for safety. But while the toys aren't harmful, what about the food?

The meals offered in the modern Happy Meal are more balanced than those offered in 1979. Now parents can choose Chicken McNuggets instead of a burger, or apples with caramel dipping sauce instead of french fries. Cindy Good, McDonald's director of nutrition, tells ABC News that while the 1979 Happy Meal had 600 calories, today's "most popular Happy Meal [consists of] four-piece chicken McNuggets, apple dippers low fat caramel dip and 1 percent low fat milk," which totals just 375 calories. Not bad for an every-so-often take-out treat.

Brett Singer is the editor-in-chief of DaddyTips.com. You can follow his tweets at Twitter.com/brettsinger.

Burger Chef could have been the big one

http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/06/10/companies-that-vanished-burger-chef-could-have-been-the-big-one/

Companies that vanished: Burger Chef could have been the big one
Jun 10th 2008
Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Products and services, Competitive strategy, Marketing and advertising, McDonald's (MCD)
This post is part of a series on some of the most memorable companies that have disappeared.

It's hard to believe these days, but at one time Burger Chef was the number two fast-food burger chain in the United States, second only to McDonald's. Its easy to forget as well that Burger Chef pioneered many of the things that its rivals became known for, including flame-broiled burgers, value combo meals, and a works bar that allowed customers to dress burgers their way.

Burger Chef had cartoon mascots, including the Burger Chef (voiced by Paul Winchell) and his sidekick Jeff, Count Fangburger, Burgerilla, Cackleburger and others. In the early 1970s, the company also offered a "Funmeal" with specially printed packaging and accompanying toys or puzzles. Burger Chef sued McDonald's after it introduced the Happy Meal in 1978, but ultimately lost.

Burger Chef offered a fish sandwich and fried apple or cherry pies. Some locations offered tale-side service, and others had windows that allowed customers to watch sandwiches being made. Burger Chef was also an early adopter of the media tie-in, with the Batman television series and the original Star Wars movie in the 1970s.

Founded in 1954 as a single restaurant in Indianapolis, Burger Chef grew rapidly, reaching 2,400 locations by 1970. General Foods bought Burger Chef in 1968, but the pace of growth stalled, and General Foods sold the company to the parent company of rival chain Hardees in 1982. Most Burger Chef locations were converted to Hardees, and by 1996 Burger Chef was no more.

It's not hard to image, though, some alternate universe where Burger Chef caught a couple of lucky breaks and became the global leader in fast food, while the Golden Arches faded away and was hardly remembered.

Tags: Burger Chef, fast food, Happy Meals, Hardees, MCD