Rather than yet another post bashing McDonalds for their ill-advised decision to put toy Hummers in their happy meals, I thought presenting them with a new idea might be more productive. Al from CityHippy and Matthew from Enviroblog have been cooking up a really interesting notion (Inspired by Brie's comment on my last post): If Hummers sell happy meals, why not Priuses?

Hybrids of all kinds are outselling Hummers a million to one, so there is clearly an appeal, and kids love technology and new gadgets. Why not give out happy meals with toy Priuses, Smart Cars and Tesla Roadsters inside? The kids would love them, the PR would be outstanding, and McDonalds would actually have the satisfaction of feeling good about their claims to be commited to environmental stewardship. I don't know what kind of cash GM forked over to promote their Hummers, but couldn't a similar deal be worked out with more responsible automakers? What if I promise to eat a Big Mac?

Seriously though, unless GM has given McDonalds untold millions for the promo, it seems like giving away something that actually promotes wiser choices can't possible be a bad thing, in fact it has to be better. What would it take to make it happen?

PS - In further news, a number of people have called into question the open-ness of the McDonald's CSR blog, whose comments section seems to be very delayed and may not, in fact, post all comments. Although some degree of spam and troll monitoring makes sense, it goes against the principals of a blog to filter comments however negative! Hopefully they will have the courage to open comments up more quickly.

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