Mumsnet and McDonalds

[tattychicken]

DH popped into a Mcdonalds yesterday to (ahem) use the facilities. Did his usual trick of taking his iPhone with him, and later let me know that when he was connecting to the Internet, the free wifi for McDonalds users popped up 'in conjunction with Mumsnet'!!! The blurb on mumsnet still says they don't allow advertising from mcdonalds, but when we googled it, it turns out this ban was lifted last May, and 'Mumsnet is proud to be associated with the family friendly restaurant'. .

WTF? You might be, MNHQ, but I'm not.

Mcdonalds is bad because it encourages children to eat junk food..

Does horrid henry encourage kids to be horrid?

Does ben-10 encourage kids to shoot people?

Do safe sex posters encourage kids to have sex?

Tatty fab post,I too was a primary teacher in such an area.

Pimp as I said previously there are hundreds of thousands of other companies MN could use.Any company selling products for children would bite their hand off.

As I said before the future of MN does not lie with McD and none of us have said MN should be advertising free just it should use a bit more common sense and be more selective/ creative instead of grabbing at any wads of cash waved in their general direction.

Well banning advertising is only going to make junk food more interesting isn't it?

The chip shop is full of kids after school...many of whom have parents who won't fill their lunch boxes with anything other than tofu, celery and a bottle of mineral water that's been bless by Desmond Tutu.

All things in moderation might be a cliche, but it's so very true.

Advertising does have an impact on me.

I see ads all the time for stuff that id like. I don't have to buy it

Yep hairylemon because advertising doesn't impact your consumption habits whatsoever, the billions corporations spend trying to persuade us to buy their tat is all irrelevant, and no-one pays any attention.

Yes! Amazing that people here can actually argue that advertising doesn't have an impacti on their lives and shopping habits. How many of you have an iphone or similar? Could it perhaps have anything to do with advertising that today people cannot lead normal lives without one of these phones? Or ipads? Or kindles? They really haven't been around for that long and now they are an essential part of most people's lives. Just an example.

I'm also appalled that MN wants to associate itself with McDonald's. "Family restaurant" indeed! McD is fine for hangovers but children really shouldn't be fed that shite. And it does matter a great deal that MN is marketing it as a good choice for families.

But you could have guessed that in MN where many posters think it's ok to exist on £1 ready meals and frozen veg "are lovin' it".

You can train these parents all you like on healthy eating but if they click on MN and see McD adverts proclaiming the pure wholesomeness of their !00% free burgers a lot of that good work will be destroyed.

Parents like this want excuses to feed their kids crap,a lot are junk food addicts themselves and they don't want to bother with preparing time consuming healthy meals that don't taste as nice.

Oh and this can go across all classes,I've taught plenty of MC children with the same deluded parents albeit not as many.

Mrs yes I do. What's the big deal about formula really? People can advertise what ever they want imo. It's up to me what I do and what my son does.

I was brought up in what would be called a deprived area and can say we weren't given fries for breakfast or met at the gates with take aways! Neither were anyone else! McDonald's isn't for a certain class of people. Fuck sake I bet the queen loves a Big Mac and milkshake!

Well as I said before MrsHeffley, I'm truly glad MNHQ credits MN posters/parents with a lot more intelligence than you do.

Can I just remind some people that no where on this site does it recommend mcdonalds. However in mcdonalds the wifi recommended mumsnet. So the people would of been in there regardless. Whats the problem?

Pimp Mn carries pop ups wholeheartedly recommending their food,have you not see the wholesome A-Z of McDonoalds ads on here?

in MN where many posters think it's ok to exist on £1 ready meals and frozen veg "are lovin' it".

Eh? Firstly MN is the last place where anyone would suggest that it's desirable to exist on ready meals (even £5 ones from Waitrose) and secondly, there's nothing wrong with frozen vegetables.

The mums on here who say advertisments impact on what we buy, you have obviously seen a mcdonalds advert on tv. Bet you wasnt persuaded to go and buy it though as its so 'shite'. Oh wait- you probably don't have a tv do you. A stroll in the park is your kind of entertainment isnt it.

i think advertising on mnet is different from advertising in a school tbh, children are more suseptible to advertising and thats why they call it 'pester power' tho tbh if i dont want to buy something for my children i say NO and no amount of pestering will make me change my mind!

i just think that the problems nationwide with some children having a poor diet and poor parenting are not going to be solved by a company such as mnet not advertising for them! its a much bigger problem and its partly to do with education, lifestyles, aspirations etc, given that 75% of parents that use mnet have a degree how many parents on here are the ones that need a bit of help with their parenting etc?

mnet does have a very middle class feel, thats not to say it IS middle class but its generally accepted that its inhabited by more mc mums and the sneery snobby attitudes we see to food etc reflect that, ditto when posters are picked up for txt speak or their spelling and punctuation, the type of parent who doesnt have a good eduation and is likely to have problems with spelling and punctuation i would say is more likely to get bad replies that criticise their posting 'style' spelling, txt speak etc and even be accused of being a troll.

anyway cant actually articulate what i am trying to say, small people needing attention, dam them for needing to be put to bed!

Worral no I don't credit all parents with the intelligence to not be swayed by McD advertising as I've taught many of their children and continuously read about our rocketing obesity levels.

Restricting advertising would help,it wouldn't solve the problem but it would help just like it did with smoking.

Frozen veg often contain more goodness than fresh veg due to the supply chain process.

If thats true mrs then why the big shocked thread about it?

Actually I think I might have been on to something upthread.

If MN want to do something about children eating crap for lunch, it'd be a lot more effective to revive Jamie Oliver's project and get the likes of Mcdonalds to lend their expertise (in logistics and procurement) than it would be to ban their advertising.

Oh wait- you probably don't have a tv do you. A stroll in the park is your kind of entertainment isnt it.

I'm impressed that you know me so well

Can you imagine McDonald's putting there burgers and fries behind a big shield

Pimp and Thesingle I'm not going to respond to childish insults.Many disagree with me and are managing not to be rude or childish,there is no need for you to be.

MrsHeffley I'm beginning to think it's you who is swayed massively by advertising from the things you're saying here.

You can always get ad blocker if you can't keep your mitts off a Big Mac and fries more than once a month cos you've seen a banner on t'internet

MrsHelffley you really do have a poor view of the ability of the non ABC1 groups to make their own choices about what they eat or give to their children.
perhaps McD's should stop paying for the Olympics too but I doubt anyone else will stump up the funding .

"Sneery snobby attitudes to food"? Eh?

So working class families should just be content with junk food and ready meals? Nothing snobby about wanting to eat healthy, good food!

It wasn't childish it was my opinion so I wrote it.

Just as you are. The only difference is I can't be arses writting big replies when that is what I actually mean.