Kids can pretend to work at Chick-Fil-A without paying to do it in a real location. This is pure advertising to children who could just use their imaginations if that’s what they want. And if you don’t think this sort of thing spreads to other kids, you don’t know about Space Camp.
I can appreciate both sides of this issue, but as a parent myself, I’m leaning toward mostly agreeing with you. It’s insane how much corporate indoctrination there is. Disney is the worst, but they’re all salivating for the chance to get their hooks into the brains of young kids, because they turn into lifelong customers. It’s the same reason why fast food chains have playgrounds out front. Even if you see an innocent playscape, the marketing is there.
I would actually say this is worse than Disney because this is trying to hook kids on something for life that’s bad for their health and increasing the obesity epidemic.
I wonder how well it works, though. Us millennials played in the McDonald’s playgrounds and had birthday parties there but I don’t think McDonald’s is particularly popular with us as adults.
Sadly, I meet millennial adults all the time who still go to McDonald’s. Fast food has been sold to a lot of people as being a totally acceptable quick substitute for actual food.
Kids can pretend to work at Chick-Fil-A without paying to do it in a real location. This is pure advertising to children who could just use their imaginations if that’s what they want. And if you don’t think this sort of thing spreads to other kids, you don’t know about Space Camp.
I can appreciate both sides of this issue, but as a parent myself, I’m leaning toward mostly agreeing with you. It’s insane how much corporate indoctrination there is. Disney is the worst, but they’re all salivating for the chance to get their hooks into the brains of young kids, because they turn into lifelong customers. It’s the same reason why fast food chains have playgrounds out front. Even if you see an innocent playscape, the marketing is there.
I would actually say this is worse than Disney because this is trying to hook kids on something for life that’s bad for their health and increasing the obesity epidemic.
I wonder how well it works, though. Us millennials played in the McDonald’s playgrounds and had birthday parties there but I don’t think McDonald’s is particularly popular with us as adults.
Sounds like they’re doing pretty well to me-
https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/content/dam/sites/corp/nfl/pdf/Exhibit 99.1 - Q1-24.pdf
Sadly, I meet millennial adults all the time who still go to McDonald’s. Fast food has been sold to a lot of people as being a totally acceptable quick substitute for actual food.