
Girl enjoying a Happy Meal, possibly for the last time.
When it comes to trends, they usually start at one of the coasts and spread towards the inside of the country. In the case of the movement to ban Happy Meals from being sold with toys, the movement began in San Francisco, which passed the first Happy Meal ban. Now, if one councilman has his way, New York City may be banning the Happy Meal, too. Councilman Leroy Comrie has introduced a law to ban the Happy Meal and other meals that offer toys with food. Comrie’s ban would force food offered with toys to have low fat and sodium and be under 500 calories.
“Our Happy Meals make it easier for families to choose the right foods in portions just for kids. We provide options for our customers and trust them to make the decisions that are right for their families. Politicians should too,” said the awesomely-named Mason Smoot, vice president and general manager of McDonald’s for the New York Metro area.
Will the Happy Meal toy ban actually work, or will McDonald’s simply just offer toyless Happy Meals and continue to do business as usual? I’m not sure how they’d respond to another Happy Meal ban. I’m surprised the first one even got off the ground personally, but you could see California doing something like this, not New York. California is health-conscious and hippie-fied, but NYC? Not so much.
Tags: Mason Smoot, New York City, Happy Meals, McDonalds, New York to ban Happy Meals, Happy Meal Ban, Leroy Comrie, New York, New York City to ban Happy Meals, Happy Meal ban to spread to New York, food police, unusual laws, nutrition laws