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.

Skipping stratight from page one to here....Your DH told you that ? - I mean he actually retained it out of a presumably busy day? Blimey!

Aitch, where does it say "Proud to be associated with a family friendly restaurant" ? I've had a look but cant see it.

i think that's what comes up when you connect?

Now Pizza Express, that is crap. And expensive crap at that. To be fair I think they might run as franchises so some will be better than others, but lets just say I wouldn't pay to eat there.

I didn't go to MDs for years and years, for the ethical reasons mentioned already. I think they've cleaned up their act however in the UK and I've lowered my standards so every now and then I take ds and we have an inexpensive, predictable (boring maybe but hey ho) lunch.

I second what some have posted already wrt local caffs btw. Some are fab, but I too have been stung £20 for not-very-good-Brake-Bros lunches more than once.

Ah right, no wonder I couldn't find it - no McD's anywhere near here!

On the "supporting local businesses" point I'd point out most McDonald's restaurants are franchises. So you are supporting a local business - and where do you think the people who work in there live?

In any case it is completely fine not to eat in McDonald's. But it's not fine to use them as a public loo or to demand MN doesn't accept them as an advertiser.

Pizza Express didn't used to be crap, now it's fallen foul of the Tesco Voucher culture, so doesn't have to try as hard any more.

I have no problem with people wanting to and having a good rant about all types of chain restaurants and pubs. ( You do realise that all those nice pubs that do lunch in Sussex and Surrey with menu on brown paper wrapping are in fact all one chain with a set menu of microwaved frozen cheap cuts).

But I find it extraordinary that people think they are responsible enough to have children yet they are not grown up enough to be able to say no to their children and blame 'pester' power and advertising. Parental responsibility is not the schools job or parliaments it's your's The government in the UK at least does not want to know about your fertility or control it nor should it have to pay the consequences of your choices with it and neither should anyone else.

PRACATAN i want to shout that everytime i see your fab nn - glad it is out of my system now!

And chubfuddler is correct these restaurants employ local people who often are so local that they walk to work and you will find many more adults with learning debilities, Downs etc are given opportunities to work at Mc'D's than you'll ever find in your local Lakeland, Next etc has ever done or is ever likely to. They are one of the genuinely few equal opportunity employers.

our local mcds got done the other day for having lots of illegal workers

Hahah, I wonder how many of the Maccy-D haters drive their DC to school and back each day healthy.

Well said Novack!
I can't see any health food shops falling over themselves to sponsor the Olympics. Also maybe those slating McD's should look at the charitable work they do. If you don't like it and think it's devil food, then don't bloody eat it!

The pret nearest to me opened at 7am on Boxing Day and provided no transport for its staff. There's no parking where we are in central London (and no not even on a bank holiday because it's Westminster who are basically Westmisers) so the chap I was talking to walked to work on Boxing Day morning - about 4 miles.

But it's not Pret who get the flak. On the other hand aren't Pret now owned by McD...?

(shrugs)
wouldn't be this reaction if it was costa, but costa is one of the most unhealthy places to eat on my high street and a meal there has a few times more calories than a McDs without any extra nutrition!

i can't tolerate costa, the muffins are REVOLTING and mostly vegetable oil. and so expensive.

Have you ever seen the health food aisle in a carrefour or Hipercor. They are empty and yet the Spanish Italians and French are not so fat but then they also don't stop children who want a BB gun from running around playing soldier with his protection on and they 14 year olds are out until dawn every weekend dancing with their friends not being kept in and fact they average age of loosing your virginity in Spain has increased to the oldest ever and that's with the youth looking at a prospect of 50% unemployment rate for 17-24 year olds.

Have you ever wondered that the UK based parents need to actually learn how to parent??

and I would argue that part of the obesity epidemic is to do with diet MYTHS
everyone KNOWS that mcD is an unhealthy treat
but the problem is the "healthy" options that people are THINKING they are making when they are being "good" which are actually as bad if not worse than McDs, the diet industry is huge, its a con, it makes you fat!

People who are piously giving their children AK meals instead of happy meals, often give MORE of them than the people who give the occassional happy meal (cause everyone knows the happy meal is salt filled crap, but some people still think an AK meal is healthy)

MCD is IMO a lesser evil because you know its an evil, its the filty rotten "healty" "diet" "low fat" scam foods that are doing most damage

Margoandjerry I may be wrong but do you think having to walk 4 miles to get to work is a bad thing??

Unless it was -10 or >35 degrees or he had a disability then what is the difference of a 1 hour walk to work or a one hour sit on a train commute. Oh yeah. Walking is healthy option. And Mcdonalds provide taxis for workers if there is no public transport available at work times if workers are distant.

Monkey mums McD's is not an unhealthy treat. In fact here's a little fact for you. Take the rop piece of bread of the three off of a Big Mac and you now have a perfectly balanced meal if you want to follow the zone diet and enjoy it's delicious flavour of 100% beef with a cup of water.

But i agree with the rest you say

To say advertising doesn't have an impact on obesity is highly naive.

Also The Lancet has called for a ban on celebrity junk food advertising,some consultants think junk food advertising should have health warnings like cigarettes.

I think to ban advertising on cigarettes and formula but not junk food is highly hypocritical. If parents need educating on the former they need it on the latter too.Junk food can be addictive.1 or 2 cigarettes aren't as harmful as 10 a day,we all know the dangers of smoking,it's the same principal with junk food.

6 months of formula as opposed to the preferred option of bm will really have no impact what so ever on long term for the vast maj of children and adults.A childhood with too much junk food as far more of an impact on long term health.

I really resent the continual inference on this subject that if you care about nationwide obesity your children will have eating disorders and are never allowed junk food,that isn't the case.My kids have sweets,choc,crisps etc but they are limited as they should be.This isn't about a balanced diet which many provide it's about an obesity epidemic which advertising can only contribute to.

If restrictions were lifted on advertising of cigarettes and formula it's obvious that smoking would go up ditto the use of formula in those first crucial weeks.I really don't see the problem with giving the banning of advertising junk food a try,it's not going to hurt anybody bar the big food companies that want us all to eat as much of the stuff as possible.

Ummm at what 5.30 in the morning on Boxing Day no I don't fancy a 4 mile walk!

i hardly think advocating mc d's suitability for a fad diet is going to get you very far.

Maybe I'm misinterpreting speeds but you couldn't walk from where he was to central London in an hour. Hendon to Central London? I'm estimating 4 miles but no way could you do that in an hour. My walk to work is just over a mile and it takes me half an hour (probably cross 30 roads on the way).

also at 4.30 on boxing day its not the same walk as at 6 or 7 on a working day when there is the reassuring presence of other workers on their way to work