By Wendy Faunce
Last Thursday, McDonald’s announced that 20 of its largest markets will
offer healthier menu options by the year 2020. In partnership with the Clinton
Foundation’s campaigns to reduce childhood obesity, McDonald’s will cut their
unhealthiest food from kids’ menus (foods high in sugar, sodium, and fat) and
add more fruits and veggies options to both the kids’ menus and the regular
menu.
This $35 million plan aims not only to please regular
McDonald’s customers, but also to attract a new demographic — millennials. Those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s are not
especially loyal customers of McDonald’s compared to other generations.
This generation has been credited before with choosing
healthier foods than our predecessors. Will fruits and veggies be enough to
entice millennials to eat McDonald’s?
Offering salads in place of fries seems like a good idea,
but several pictures of the fresh fruit McDonald’s plans to offer are
questionable. According to these pictures, a serving of melon means two
small-ish slices of melon per package. Another picture shows a package
containing one sliver of pineapple.
The result may be this generation opting for our money’s
worth over healthier foods. Since millennials range from elementary age to
recent college graduates, many will not have extra money to spend (which could
be a contributing factor of choosing to dine at McDonald’s in the first place).
So if for the same price one could get a small order of fries or a slice of
pineapple, which is the budget-restrained college student probably going to choose?
Though offering healthier options is reasonable, the offer
may not draw millennials into McDonald’s restaurants. What do you think?
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