McDonalds & Nintendo Together at Last

I was so disheartened to hear today that McDonalds and that Nintendo are teaming up to offer free Wi-Fi in nearly 6,000 McDonalds restaurants so that Nintendo owners can play networked games online for free. As if it is not bad enough that American children are already spending unprecedented hours in front of televisions, computers, and gaming machines, but now many kids will surely be spending some of these sedentary hours in a McDonalds restaurant surrounded by 99¢ value meals and other low cost junk food. At least luring kids into McDonalds to play in their in-house playgrounds is somewhat forgivable in that it offers kids a safe place to play and be active, but this new partnership sounds like a prime example of all that is wrong with marketing, branding, and advertising to young people. By inviting young people to come to the restaurant and stay to play video games it is clear that McDonalds is aggressively recruiting younger and more impressionable customers. Despite all McDonalds’ hype around salads and apple slices, health and wellness are clearly good PR points for McDonalds but don’t have any real bearing on actions and decisions made by the fast food giant. 

Comments

[markvalli]

And it undercuts the company's message (for example, in its sponsoring of Sesame Stree), that it wants kids to lead 'active' lives.

Although I wonder if the intended demographics are the teen to 20s male who would make the tacky choice of playing video games at a mcdonalds booth to avoid having to leave their parents house/ basement apartment/game store to score crap food.

[Jennifer Manuzak]

I understand the downside to teaming up with Nintendo but what about encouraging kids to use technology? I mean, obviously playing video games isn't the best way for kids to get to know how to use technology, but I prefer to imagine that not everything about Nintendo is a bad thing.

[markvalli]

If you consider video games outside the context of healthy vs. unhealthy food and active vs. passive leisure activities, then yeah it's a different equation. They are supposed to help with problem solving and eye hand coordination. I also don't think that video game violence has the negative impacts that some critics assign to it, otherwise I'd be a psychopath myself, having assassinated my share of imaginary opponents. As a new parent I suppose that soon enough we'll be deciding if/when our daughter should get a gaming system and how much is too much in terms of time spent in front of the screen.