Parent Alarmed by KFC

07/18/2006

Level with your child by being honest. Nobody spots a phony quicker than a child.
Mary MacCrackent

Swati Popat, director of Podar Jumbo Kids in Mumbai, India, shared with Exchange this letter from one of the parents in her program...

[Companies] like McDonalds and KFC sure think they know how to go about their business; they earn their revenues through child consumerism, and tempt our unsuspecting little tots through "Happy Meals." My three year old doesn't know to read ABC yet but he sure knows the McDonalds and KFC signs. Even though he hates burgers, he insists on getting into an outlet the moment he sees one — just for the Happy Meals, which by the way are eaten entirely by me, while he enjoys the toy and ice cream.

Yesterday, Nivid dragged me to the new KFC outlet at Linking road, and as usual, while I chomped through his Happy Meal, or whatever they call it, Nivid busied himself with the toy provided. But instead of his usual enthusiasm at exploring a new toy, he actually pushed it away with disgust, I put it in my purse and we returned home, but he was still annoyed and unhappy with the toy. I wondered why.... It was a nice quality...nice colour plastic figurine of a hen in a chef's cap with a frying pan in her hand. There was a nice yellow and white fried egg on the pan, which you could toss up and down till the sunny side was up...interesting. But I still couldn't figure out why it upset my toddler so much; when I prodded him about it, here's what he said..

"Mamma, I'm your baby and you love me right...?" he asked, wanting some reassurance

"Of course..." I answered warmly with a hug.

"Egg is a baby chicken, then how can she cook her own baby?" he demanded to know, pointing a little finger at the hen, unable to hold back his tears. "Does it mean you and papa can also cook me to eat?" he wailed.

"It's only a toy...just for playing...don't bother about it," I tried to pacify him, a little shaken up myself.

"I don't like this toy — it makes me sad." He burst into tears again.

When I thought about it later the same night, I realised he was indeed right. Here our kids have just been on the planet for two - three years, still learning about the ways of the world and here comes a money hungry [company] wooing them with dozens of hastily fabricated different types of toys, none of which are designed with any thought or sensitivity to a toddler or his impressionable mind. I wish I could scream at KFC to go count their chickens elsewhere!

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