Kid You Not spends a lot of time criticizing McDonalds for the insidious ways it pushes their horrible food on kids, things like sending Ronald McDonald into schools and libraries under the guise of reading awareness or some other Trojan horse.
So it’s nice to be able to praise another multi-national corporation for a good deed, even as they suck up your cash faster than you can say George Michael.
Walt Disney Co. recently announced it would stop licensing its characters to junk food, and instead dish out the coveted Disney brand to decent kids’ eats. In other words, the Incredibles Pop-Parts are out and the Mickey apple dippers are in.
"Parents try to make intelligent choices, said Disney honcho Thomas O. Staggs. "The right thing to do for our company, our brand and our characters in to provide them those choices."
This is exactly the point Kid You Not makes when assailing McDonalds. A parent can take steps to make sure their kid eats good food, but when a school or library essentially endorses McDonalds, the parent loses a lot of leverage next time the golden arches appear in the car window. Inversely, having Tinker Bell on a package of, say, whole grain bread helps mom and dad do the right thing.
The big news is Disney World and Disney Land is replacing fries and soda in kids’ meals with vegetables and juice. Judging by the size of a lot of the parents at these parks, Disney might want to make it a blanket policy.
Kid You Not now calls on PBS to follow Disney’s lead and drop McDonalds as a sponsor for its popular kids’ shows.
By the way, Disney is not endorsing that completely inappropriate George Michael reference.