How McDonalds Insulted a Blogger By Telling Her “Go Parent Your Kids” & What That Really Means About Their Marketing Tactics

My jaw dropped this morning when I saw that McDonald’s corporate twitter account had insulted Casey Hinds, mom and author of the kids’ health blog KY Healthy Kids:

 Go parent your kids?  REALLY? Parenting our kids is EXACTLY what we’re doing.

The insult arose because Casey, like I am, is part of the #MomsNotLovinIt movement to stop fast food marketing to kids. When Ronald got his hipster makeover a couple of weeks ago, moms like us were not happy, because a clown with cargo pants marketing junk food to kids is still a clown marketing junk food to kids.

 We know that the real makeover Ronald needs is retirement.

 So moms have been challenging the #RonaldMcDonald hashtag with #MomsNotLovinIt — so much that the Today Show mentioned us. (After its #McDStories & #CheerstoSochi campaigns failed miserably, McDonald’s really should have seen this coming–maybe third time’s the charm).

 I guess McDonald’s can’t take the heat–how else can you explain blatantly insulting a mom who is simply and bravely trying to protect her kids from this corporation’s attempts to undermine her?

 This specific tweet was a mistake on the part of Lizzie, the McDonald’s twitter team leader. She intended to insult Casey from her personal account, and sent it from the corporate account. And she did apologize (not for the insult, but for using the wrong account). Then McDonalds acknowledged the mistake, but never apologized. Even thought THEY employ Lizzie…

 Yes, Lizzie should apologize from the official McDonald’s Corporate account, but this is about way more than an apology.

McDonald’s Corporate Culture Undermines Moms

This tweet is a glimpse into the terrifyingly callous and manipulative way that McDonald’s views mothers. To McDonald’s, moms are “gatekeepers” – that’s what McDonald’s executives call us. We are the bodies they need to charm, trick, and shove out of the way to get to our kids.

For decades, McDonald’s has undermined parental authority by marketing to kids in the most insidious and aggressive ways imaginable. It’s WAY beyond turning off the TV. McDonald’s lures kids everywhere parents are not: in schools, in libraries, in hospitals, on facebook and twitter and snapchat, on fun websites, even with my son’s report card…. it doesn’t end.

How People are Speaking out About McDonald’s Predatory Marketing Practices

Moms around the world, moms like Casey and me and thousands of others, are fed up. We are NOT going to let McDonald’s continue to lure children into a lifetime of disease. That’s exactly why another brave spokesperson, 10-year-old Hannah Robertson, issued a call to action earlier this week calling on McDonald’s to stop co-opting kids’ role models. Please watch and share Hannah’s (adorable) new video, and join the movement.

Is Lizzie allowed to make a mistake? Yes. But I think the issue is more about the corporate culture of McDonalds and their consistent marketing to children with products that cause a lifetime of diet related diseases. I’m against McDonalds marketing fast food to my children. I’m not okay with being just a “gatekeeper” to them and finding a way to circumvent my wishes.

And I think that’s parenting my children.

Call me crazy…