McDonalds Go active meals?

**Sara Noel** · 09-18-2003, 07:44 PM

Instead of Happy Meal standards like a burger and a toy, the new Go Active meal will include a salad, an exercise booklet and a pedometer meant to encourage walking.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...healthier_fare

This is interesting. I wonder how much and seems odd to include a booklet and a pedometer in each "happy" meal.

I am happy to see them improve the salads. I'd like to see some cold sandwiches offered there.
And when when when are they going to serve breakfast 24/7???

**Michelle** · 09-18-2003, 08:13 PM

oh dear...this is just too weird...

**captclearance** · 09-18-2003, 08:18 PM

Well we'll see............ You can lead a horse to water......

**sunshine** · 09-18-2003, 08:20 PM

McDonald's to Launch Adult Happy Meals

It does specify that these are geared to adults. I guess that explains the booklet and pedometer.

**Sara Noel** · 09-18-2003, 08:46 PM

I know they are geared towards adults. I should have clarified. I meant how strange to include a pedometer in each one. I picture some people with a pile of pedometers. I also was curious the cost of the meal because of adding the pedometer and booklet to each one. I mean if a salad is going to cost $7.99 because of a pedometer and a booklet...then I hope they have the option to order it separate for let's say $3.99.
Point being...how many repeat sales of the meal could there be if the added items are always the same?

**lucy979** · 09-19-2003, 02:03 AM

Yeah, that doesn't make much sense, Sara! I mean how many pedometers does one person need?!

**aylasmommy** · 09-19-2003, 02:20 AM

interesting!

and I agree sara, when WILL they serve breakfast 24/7?
I rarely ever go there, but went in a bit ago. There they had a dollar menu with all these items listed. No mention of any specific times for different ones. So I asked for a bagel. But I couldn't get one because it was a breakfast item

Must be real hard to pull one out of a bag after 11 or whenever it's over....I just didn't get why it didn't SAY next to it 'breakfast only' man that ones been bothering me a while

**AmyMCGS** · 09-19-2003, 09:02 AM

I had seen a story on the news the other night about these adult Happy Meals.... I like the idea. And their new salads are pretty good-- I've had the Cobb, and coworkers were eating some of the other varieties and they looked pretty good. If they want to package that salad into a combo for me, I'll try it!

The news story I saw said these were starting out in Indiana as a test market before the rest of us would get them.

**mommy2three** · 09-19-2003, 09:30 AM

COOL....I'LL LET YA KNOW WHEN THEY GET HERE.

**mommy2three** · 09-19-2003, 09:34 AM

http://www.mcdonalds.com/countries/u...dex_flash.html

**PrairieRose** · 09-19-2003, 09:52 AM

All of our friends and family will be getting podometers as Christmas/birthday gifts....cuz we're cheap er, um I mean frugal

**MJsLady** · 09-19-2003, 11:03 AM

Man I have wanted a pedometer for ages! I wonder how this will affect the cost of meals too though, I mean the salads are already $3.99 or so.
I had heard locally that htey are going to offer value meals with a salad, coke and bottle of water... it didn't make much sense when I heard it, why coke AND water.. but then I figure I must have misheard what htey said.

**simplemom** · 09-19-2003, 11:20 AM

My pedometer cost me 30$...gee...I think I overpaid. Maybe McDonald's pedometer is cheaper than mine...??

Well, it's a nice initiave, but we can't buy a pedometer every week with a meal...Like Sara said, I hope we can buy just the salad for cheaper...

**Kimmomo3** · 09-19-2003, 01:38 PM

I wish they had a kid salad happy meal. A side salad with fries, drink and a toy. I have asked dor one at my local MD's cuz I have 2 kids thay would order that almost every time. But they get the nuggets cuz they want the toy. But I have silly kids they like salads and vegatables, I don't know how it happened but I don't discurage it!

**mommy2three** · 09-30-2003, 10:58 AM

~~THIS WAS IN OUR LOCAL PAPER THIS MORNING.

http://www.journalreview.com/main.as...ubSectionID=27

My first McStep

By Dick Wolfsie

A friend told me the other day that McDonald’s had come up with a concept that is going to revolutionize the fast food business. I tried to imagine what kind of improvements could possibly improve on something that is already perfect. OK, there are a few things I’d like to see fixed. What if they:
1. Took the word “fast” seriously.

2. Put the right order in the right bag.

3. Improved the acoustics over the intercom so that “do you want fries with that?” is not dwanzfrifhfhffiresiddat.

Sorry, those improvements are still in the future. Apparently, there was a greater consumer demand for something else. Now, when you buy a Big Mac, double order of fries and a shake, you get a free stepometer. When I heard about this I was just so excited that I ran out and got a dictionary so I could see what a stepometer was.

Brace yourself: A stepometer counts the number of steps you take when you walk. The idea here is that if you know how many steps you take each day, it will help you lose weight. We’ll take a short McBreak now while we all go “HUH?”

I did some research and there are only two recorded cases of someone actually taking a walk after eating fast food. One was Bernie Featherston of Atlanta who walked from McDonald’s over to Arby’s because he likes horseradish sauce on his fries. And there’s Beth Cutler of Peoria, who bought the new M&M Blizzard at Wendy’s, then walked over to Weight Watchers so she could drink it in front of the window right before she turned in her resignation.

In the old days, fast food establishments included toys with your order, appealing to the kids. But the new marketing approach is to give some incentive to adults as well. Apparently, McDonald’s commissioned a $5 million study and it was determined that a lot of those kids who eat at McDonald’s grow up to be adults. That seemed to surprise the McDonald’s executives. Sure, fast food is bad for you, but not that bad.

Bob Greene, Oprah’s personal trainer, has been promoting this stepometer. He claims the average person takes only 2,500 steps a day. (This number would be much higher if half the people in America weren’t in bed watching Oprah in the middle of the day or reading one of the books she is hawking.)

I think this is just the beginning. Here are a couple of concepts that might also appeal to the masses:

How about a biteometer? This would tell a person how many bites he has taken while eating at McDonald’s. That’s the kind of immediate feedback that can help someone decide on subsequent trips if he has enough time for a Big Mac or has to settle for a double cheeseburger.

Or a tape measure with every meal at Taco Bell? Eat a burrito and an enchilada. Then wrap that baby around you and see if you have room for the Taco Grande. That’s the kind of data you can really use.

Now that I am getting closer to my senior years, I’d like a little portable hypertension kit with my lunch. Then, when I get back to my house with a filet of fish sandwich instead of the chicken club I ordered, I can test my blood pressure to see just how ticked off I am.

Dick Wolfsie is a WISH TV Channel 8 personality and author. His humor column appears Saturdays in the Journal Review.