"Lock the doors and close the blinds -- we're going for a ride..."

(cross-posted to McCola )

McDonalds does put on a good face sometimes.

Perhaps it's for the wrong reasons, such as the idea of publicity or name recognition. But they do give back to the community in certain ways, mostly monetary, by donating to worldwide children's funds, promoting breast cancer awareness information and the "Ronald McDonald House" and "Camp Mickey D's" programs they run. McDonalds has a list of these contributions as well as a "community responsibility report" listed at http://www.mcdonalds.com/usa/good/community.html.

Nonetheless, their intense immersion into the mainstream society hit home earlier today...

You see, I have a toddler who is two and-a-half years old. We watch television with him -- only on the weekends, and only limited to specific shows with an educational component to them. He doesn't mind because he loves the characters and wouldn't want to watch anything else anyway. Among these shows are Sesame Street (and its derivatives on the "Noggin" network), Blue's Clues (Nickelodeon), and certain shows in the "Playhouse Disney" line-up -- including JoJo's Circus, The Wiggles, Charlie and Lola, and Stanley.

For those of you unfamiliar with "Playhouse Disney," we're talking about animated shows (aside from The Wiggles) aimed at the preschool demographic which promote learning, imagination and creativity among other skills. The block of programming is commercial-free, but includes a good deal of subtle plugs for certain other Disney products available on CD or DVD, as well as the theme parks. Mostly innocuous.

Since 2002, McDonalds has entered into a partnership with Playhouse Disney as a corporate sponsor. This means that, for about 20 seconds every hour, there is a short ad for McDonalds. It doesn't mention food at all, but it does have some catchy music, the Ronald McDonald motif, and enough spruce to equate McDonalds with excitement and fun. It ends with the Golden Arches logo, and is sandwiched with the newest McDonalds jingle -- "Buh da buh BAH bah..." You'll know it if you hear it.

Today the family headed to an outlet mall in Virginia. We had brought some food for our son, but we wanted to get him something else as well which he'd enjoy and which wasn't too anti-nutritional. We have been inindated with these advertisements for McDonalds' fruit and walnut salad, so we decided to try it out. (For those interested: grapes, red apples, green apples in a bowl. Sugar coated walnuts and vanilla yogurt packaged separately.)

My wife and our son approached the McDonalds in the food court. Upon seeing those magical golden arches, our two and-a-half year old made the connection. And sang: "Buh da buh BAH bah..."

We don't eat at McDonalds. Perhaps very, very rarely will we get fries from there if there's nothing else around. It's simply not a staple in our diet. Nonetheless, even by just watching "safe" television, he made the connection. We think this is disturbing.

But honestly? This is a battle that they have won. McDonalds didn't just get to him. They got to us. After all, we're the ones who instinctively knew that they had this offering which he would eat. We're the ones who opted to go to the food court. If we were trying to assess blame, we'd have to look at ourselves first and foremost.

If anything, I think this gives us more impetus to cut down on TV watching -- even "smart:" TV watching -- and on eating in food courts -- even "smart" food court offerings.