Are you kidding me?

Did you catch this story about The Center For Science In The Public Interest and their plan to sue McDonald's over the toys the restaurant puts into their Happy Meals? It just blew me away. Here's what they had to say:

"McDonald's marketing has the effect of conscripting America's children into an unpaid drone army of word-of-mouth marketers, causing them to nag their parents to bring them to McDonald's," CSPI's Stephen Gardner wrote to the heads of the chain in a letter announcing the lawsuit.

Um, hello? Don't almost ALL restaurants that offer a kid's meal also offer some sort of "prize" with the meal? I've worked in several restaurants including McDonald's, Arby's, Wendy's and Dairy Queen and we had toys for the kid's meals at every one of those restaurants. 

And out of all of those restaurants, McDonald's was the only one that offered fruit (at the time I worked there) as an alternative to fries. In general the kid's meals have less food in them than an adult's meal and many (many, many, many) of the kids that I've personally seen get the Happy Meal didn't even care that much about the toy after the initial examination. 

I just think this is a ridiculous and frivolous lawsuit. If they aren't going to go after every single restaurant that offers and advertises the toys available in their kid's meals then I don't believe they should go after McDonald's. 

Oh, and by the way, I am not a big eater and I generally get a kid's meal as MY meal AND I often enjoy the toy and have been known to play with them since I refuse to grow up. Does that mean that I'm a part of the "unpaid drone army of word-of-mouth marketers"? If I am, I want my cut of the lawsuit.

One more by the way...

If you like Monkey Bread and like winning things, click here to jump over to my cookbook for a chance to win your own Monkey Bread kit :) 

Now I'm craving some delicious Chicken McNuggets dipped in BBQ sauce so I'll be back later. Oh. Sorry. Did I just do it again and exert my influence over you? I better be careful or one of the sue-happy people will be knocking on my door next.