Fast-food menus now boast the unhealthiest burgers in history, as we noted a few months back. Now McDonald's--left out of the crowd since growing public pressure forced it to trim down its menu--has found another way to send a big eff-you to the healthy-living set: It has started including a toy Hummer with every Happy Meal. Environmental groups, naturally, are up in arms at the example the company is setting by including the toys (hey kids, fantasize about driving this awesome gas-guzzler!)

As a poster over at Slashfood points out, Mickey D's has been trumpeting its eco-record lately, and this Hummer/Happy Meal business is undoing most of that image-burnishing in one fell swoop. What were their PR people thinking? Not only that, but as Fast Food News and Treehugger note, fast-food joints cook with insanely polluting charbroilers--so polluting, in fact, that making just four regular hamburgers emits the same number of volatile organic compounds as driving 1,000 miles in a current-model car. 

But to be charitable, perhaps McDo's is merely anticipating the death of the Hummer and wants to bestow children with a valuable collector's item--the car company's sales were down last month, and overall SUV sales were even lower as gas prices continued to rise. That's one extinction I could get behind.

Posted by Christy Harrison on Aug 23, 2006 at 5:15 PM
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