This is one of the scariest things I’ve read in a long time. McDonalds trying to brainwash “Moms” into thinking that McD’s is “healthy” cause they can make “real” food quick. Come on……. on the Jetsons they just pushed a button. Please – please please — don’t believe this PR move.

If McDonalds was serious about about healthy food for kids they’d bring in chefs, doctors, children’s health advocates that truly know what they’re being shown, what it means and how it translate to healthy kids and a healthy planet.

Stupid people – UGH!!!!!!

Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/

McDonald’s seeking moms’ approval

Chain hopes their blogs fight bad press

By John Schmeltzer

Tribune staff reporter

June 11, 2007

LaShawna Fitzpatrick-Hughes wasn’t joking when she asked officials of McDonald’s Corp. where they were hiding the microwaves.

“Seriously, I thought the food was frozen, thawed and heated in a microwave,” the 35-year-old stay-at-home mom from Encino, Calif., told more than a dozen dumbfounded executives gathered last week at a McDonald’s restaurant kitchen in Oak Brook, near the company’s headquarters. Around them, workers hurriedly processed breakfast orders or prepared salads for the lunch rush.

Instead of microwaves, Fitzpatrick-Hughes saw a production line delivering made-to-order meals to customers generally in less than minute after an order is placed.

It is that kind of misconception that McDonald’s is hoping to counteract in a program dubbed Moms’ Quality Correspondents, which will be launched next week. The program, in which six moms get behind-the-scenes access to McDonald’s restaurants and blog about what they see, is another step in a public-relations offensive launched a year ago to combat a barrage of criticism that paints the world’s largest restaurant chain as a key contributor to the nation’s growing obesity dilemma.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, obesity rates have soared over the past 20 years. Now, 32.9 percent of adults are considered obese, and 18.8 percent of children ages 6 to 11 are obese. In children ages 12 to 19, 17.4 percent are obese.

The burger giant apparently also is hoping that the program will help contradict stories of fattening, unhealthy food that have been detailed in books such as “Fast Food Nation” and movies such as “Super Size Me.”

McDonald’s has equipped six mothers with laptop computers to record their impressions of its operations over the next few months. The moms were chosen by an independent company from a group of 4,000 applicants, and the blogs and journals will be posted “unedited” beginning June 20 on McDonald’s home page, where it hopes to attract other moms interested in seeing the comments, officials said last week.

It is a move that could easily backfire.

It is providing the women with the ability to file their comments on the Internet via McDonald’s Web site. And they also can step outside McDonald’s influence and post their comments on one of the dozens of food blogs in operation.

John Owens, an analyst with Chicago-based Morningstar Inc., said McDonald’s “might gain some insights that they wouldn’t (get) in controlled focus groups and other marketing studies.”

But while the Web journals could “shed some light on misconceptions, it can work the other way as well,” he said. “They might receive some criticisms that might be very warranted.”

For Fitzpatrick-Hughes, the project is a learning process.

“One of the most important things I learned is that McDonald’s prepares their food fresh, and I was told the food has a shelf life. So, if your local store is following the proper procedures, you shouldn’t be getting mushy Filet-O-Fish patties or dried-out hamburgers,” Fitzpatrick-Hughes wrote as part of her first journal entry that will post Wednesday.

“I learned that there is a standard set in place at each restaurant across the country. I am curious if my local McDonald’s is following all the protocols. I can’t wait to find out.”

In coming months, the moms will work in a restaurant, go through a hamburger plant and visit an orchard that supplies apples to the chain.

McDonald’s officials said they are hoping that opening the chain’s doors for an unprecedented look at its operations before the blogs and journals debut will have answered participants’ concerns.

Although individual restaurants have given tours for years, McDonald’s has allowed the public into its kitchens only once before. That occurred three years ago when the company’s restaurants in France, which had endured years of protests over the quality of the food being served, invited customers into its kitchens. Sales have climbed and the protests have dropped since the French restaurants offered a peek at their operations.

“These are real moms, with real opinions and real questions about the food they are feeding their families. As a mother, I understand the priority moms place on ensuring a safe, nutritious, high-quality meal for their family,” said Susan Forsell, McDonald’s vice president of U.S. quality systems.

The bloggers are the second group of mothers working with McDonald’s. While the bloggers are working with the U.S. division, another group of mothers drawn from across the world is offering guidance on balanced and active lifestyle initiatives, restaurant communications and children’s well-being. That initiative was launched last fall and is ongoing.

Richard Adams, who offers consulting services to McDonald’s franchisees, said the move reflects the confidence that chain now has.

“They are pretty bold right now with the success they have been having,” Adams said.

He believes that much of the criticism about the chain’s food over the years has been unfounded.

Terry Kearney, a marketing professor at Chicago State University, said he thinks McDonald’s is taking a huge risk. The use of the Internet increases the risk significantly, he added.

“Nothing like this has ever been done using the Internet,” he said.

Still, Kearney said it gives the chain the chance to gain easy victories.

“This gives them the opportunity to exceed expectations,” he said.

Most consumers have “very low expectations” of the meal they will get from the fast-food chain, Kearney said.

“It was a real step up for that lady who thought everything was microwaved when she discovered the fresh hamburger,” he said.