Rebelling Through Ronald
Early on, McDonald’s found a formula that worked for reaching the hearts and minds of children, namely by creating a space just for them.
From McDonald’s playgrounds and Ronald.com to Happy Meals and children’s parties, the messages and images are calculated to appeal to a child’s growing self-awareness and desire to possess things that are uniquely her/his own.
As child psychologist Susan Linn writes, “marketing products by feeding into children’s ‘need to be in control’ exacerbates an ongoing normal tension in family life that arises as children move from the total dependence of infancy to the independence of adulthood…we call this a need for ‘autonomy.’”
Alarmingly, that same appeal to independence and autonomy which first attracts a child to the happy meal will cause her/him to reject the item as she/he matures and senses she/he has outgrown the kids meal. The desire to no longer be treated as a child and cast-off things associated with childhood can be easily leveraged by advertisers. In fact, concerns have been raised that toys given away in happy meals and the nature of the marketing used to promote them are unlikely to appeal to children over the age of nine or 10 and may instead be sending the message that older children should be making choices from the adult menu. Consumers International finds that the marketing for a more teenage audience promotes items from the adult menu.
The trouble with this, of course, is that these products come not only with an adult-sized price tag, but an adult-sized calorie count as well, and there’s no option for “healthy” side substitutes on the adult menu.