HUMMER Happy Meal Hysteria
When McDonalds announced that it had teamed up with GM on a new HUMMER-themed Happy Meal, it seemed like a no-brainer. Kids like Happy Meals, kids like trucks, and everybody knows HUMMER. You don't need a degree in marketing to figure out that putting these elements together would be a hit for all involved.
Reading the New York Times' account of it, however, could lead one to believe that the HUMMER Happy Meal represents the end of western civilization.
In last week's article titled "Would You Like A Gas Guzzler With That?" writer Melanie Warner offers up a plodding critique of the promotion, McDonalds, and of course, GM / HUMMER. The reactions collected are so over-the-top, the article practically reads like satire.
Click through for some of the hyperbole-laden "highlights" of the article.
- Warner interviews a Sierra Club official who characterizes the promotion as being as responsible as "dipping a Big Mac in fry oil and serving it to your kids." The same rep also takes potshots at GM for having the audacity to produce the HUMMER H1 and H2, which, he sniffs, are technologically "passé." The Sierra Club's feelings about HUMMER are not exactly a secret.
- A spokesman for the Environmental Defense Fund apparently had his tinfoil hat firmly in place at the time of his interview. He theorized that "McDonalds might be trying to help an ailing General Motors win some future customers." Yes! It's a conspiracy designed to help GM rule the world in 8 to 10 years when the the kids who currently make up the Happy Meal's target audience get their drivers licenses.
- Anne Korin of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security is against the promotion, saying that large inefficient vehicles are, according to the article, "unpatriotic and detrimental to America's national security" and that the HUMMER toys send "a message to children that utter waste of this precious resource that is causing us such national security problems is O.K." Ummmm, whoa.
Going to groups like the ones cited and asking them to comment on HUMMER is akin to seeking opinions on the Yankees from Red Sox fans in the stands at Fenway. No one's going to have anything nice to say, and everyone involved in the conversation knows it.
The article, ostensibly about the marketing tie-in, was really just an excuse to tee off on GM for having the audacity to produce SUVs. Why else would a reporter go to the Sierra Club to get reaction on this month's HUMMER Happy Meal theme?
[Source: New York Times]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
Sid 12:30PM (8/14/2006)
I'm glad I don't live in NY. Or else I'd have to read the NYT.
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Bryan 12:37PM (8/14/2006)
Hmm, you rail against the author about bias, yet you say "they're kids and not agenda-driven killjoys like this particular Times reporter and the people she interviewed for the article".
Pot, meet kettle.
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rwdmtparkingonly 12:38PM (8/14/2006)
It's only fair to increase minimum wage if McDonald's employees now have to say "would you like a hummer with that?"
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Bryan 12:40PM (8/14/2006)
"I'm glad I don't live in NY. Or else I'd have to read the NYT."
Yes, because it is against the law to live in NY and not have a NYT subscription.
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unimental 12:41PM (8/14/2006)
Over-the-top liberal outrage in the New York Times? Impossible. I'm sure Dick Cheney and "Big Oil" also had something to do with this new Hummer/McD's promotion... we'll have to wait for the unbiased investigative report.
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GrowUp 12:47PM (8/14/2006)
#1...I do live in NY...please don't lump the rest of us in this good state in with the tinfoil beany club.
By the way, since we get more oil from Canada than any other foreign entity, isn't the money actually going to further socialist causes? So should these guys be happy?
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Chet 12:47PM (8/14/2006)
This is not the first time that the New York Times has attacked GM. (See http://fyi.gmblogs.com/2006/06/the_times_151_again_1.html)
The New York Times is rubbish. McDonald's understands its target market; they're reacting to what the kids like, not creating demand for gas-guzzlers. Did the Times attack McD's and Disney for the "Cars" promotion (surely another insidious attempt to encourage shameful consumption of fossil fuels), or did they skip that because there were no GM badges?
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Ryan 12:48PM (8/14/2006)
Politics blow serious ass chunks across this country. It divides people, upsets people, and overall gets everybody nowhere.
I encourage all of you to simply just not read news anymore, it really is nice, you have extra time to work out, etc.
Days I have been off news: 24 days, (I do make an exception for autoblog.com) yeah, 24 days with ZERO news, I could not tell you a *single* thing that has taken place the past 24 days!!!!
I'm lovin' it...!
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Zo 12:48PM (8/14/2006)
And you expect something different from the "New York Times'" -- the East Coast bible of the liberal left which is in from a democratic state whose views are always "I am holier-than-thou" from a tree hugger reporter and editorial staff. I used to love the Times, its been years since I bothered to read it anymore.
At some point in time all media stopped being objective and started always having a politcal motive. Everything is like a Michael Moore film -- its a documentary disguised as good reporting pushing a single view in hopes of brain washing the masses.
Thank goodness for blogs and other forms of media to allow a different voice.
As per the topic, a toy is not going to convince anyone to buy a Hummer -- if parents are smart (which may be the real problem) it is a opportunity to talk to kids about the environment (parents do talk to their kids -- right?)
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Glancing Aft 12:48PM (8/14/2006)
Maybe McDonalds can go out of business along with GM...
Then what would all the fat Americans do?
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Hank 12:51PM (8/14/2006)
Glancing Aft,
Such insightful, valuable, enlightening comments. How do you do it?
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Oh Brother 12:52PM (8/14/2006)
Guess we may as well put a six cylinder into the H3 after all.
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JC 12:53PM (8/14/2006)
GET OFF OF YOUR SOAP BOXES! IT'S A TOY TURCK FOR GODS SAKE............AREN'T THERE BIGGER THINGS GOING ON IN THE WORLD?
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TechnoLogic 12:56PM (8/14/2006)
In a free country, you're allowed to buy whatever vehicle you want. But as this NYTimes article points out, some choices are smarter than others, both for the individual and society at large. As for media bias, let's gice the NYTimes some slack and realize that they are a paper written primarily for New York City, a dense urban area where owning an off-road vehicle makes little sense for most people. The only bias they are guilty of is for printing Judy Miller's WMD lies on behalf of Scooter Libby and Dick Cheney, during the pre-Iraq attack hysteria.
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MKBruin 12:57PM (8/14/2006)
1991: Hot wheels packaged in happy meals
1992: series of 8 hot wheels cars packaged in happy meals.
2000: hot wheels packaged in happy meals
2003: Hot Wheels World Race cars complete with track pieces to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Hot Wheels cars
2005: Hot Wheels Accelerators packaged in Happy Meals
so.... because this one is an SUV, MCD is the devil.
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rwdmtparkingonly 1:00PM (8/14/2006)
It's hard to be serious when people at McDonalds are going to have to ask "[w]ould you like a hummer with that?", but I wonder how many people would care if Toyota FJ Cruisers were in the happy meals instead.
I know that Toyotas run on water and only emit flowery scented oxygen, but still.
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piglet 1:04PM (8/14/2006)
Hey kids, you can always run your H 1 on Bio-Willie. Just ask the Micky-D's manager if you can drain the fat from the waste disposal pit. Oh...that's right, biodeisel is frowned upon, whilst the less efficient E85 is our nation's silver bullet. I guess Tonka trucks are out of the question for kids, especially cranes, bulldozers & (gasp) any of these toys being made out of metal. Heaven forbid these toys be sturdy enough to pass down to one's siblings. Funny, isn't plastic derived from refined petrolium? Oops! Also, does anyone remember when a Hummer was a euphamism for something entirely different? No wonder the latest ads are supposed to appeal to guys. C'mon! What guy wouln't want one of those "Hummers"? BTW, what happened to reading the Daily News or the trashy NY Post? I guess the Times is a larger paper & makes for better lining of bird cages, wrapping fish & things of that sort. 9 out of 10 McCaws prefer the wordiness of the Times, particularly the editorials & Sunday crosswords.
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gschoneman 1:10PM (8/14/2006)
"McDonalds might be trying to help an ailing General Motors win some future customers."
When I was a kid I played with TONKA dump trucks. I have never owned a dump truck and don't anticipate purchasing one any time soon. IT'S A TOY TRUCK IN A HAPPY MEAL!! I need to get my roll of duct tape and tape up my head before it explodes.
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iQuack 1:13PM (8/14/2006)
New York Times was once a great newspaper. No more.
Nothing but a leftist rag that's best used for lining the bottoms of bird cages--if you have no respect for your bird.
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PJ 1:17PM (8/14/2006)
Bleh... please don't lump all of us liberals in with this idiotic article.
Where was this journalist when McD was putting toy semi trucks and airplanes in the Happy Meals I got as a kid? I imagine 50-foot-tall steel Transformer robots could have quite an environmental impact, too.
I agree with the NYT article *only* in that I find the idea of kids eating greaseburgers and getting H2 toys in the same restaurant aesthetically displeasing. That's what the article should have said: this annoys us. The rest is sensationalist filler to create a news item where there isn't one.
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