grodscorp@grods.comEvil leftist Happy Meals
 | Posted by Scott on Monday 17 November 2008, 6:04 pm Categories: Corporate stupidity, Media Tags: AfricanElephant, AndrewBolt, conservation, GiantPanda, HappyMeals, McDonald's, YellowFootedRockWallaby |
Andrew Bolt has had a crack at McDonald’s for using their Happy Meals, in conjunction with Australia Zoo, to promote conservation of endangered animals. Now, I’m no fan of Happy Meals, and I’m vegetarian, but if Maccas is going to take advantage of kids they might as well push a worthy cause while they do it. However, Bolta sees a pernicious lefty conspiracy.
McDonald’s Happy Meal isn’t so happy when the kids are warned mid-bite that other animals - no, not the ones they’re actually eating - are endangered. It’s even less happy when McDonald’s has the hide to claim that fluffy wuffy kangaroos, cute elephants and lovable pandas are those close to extinction. Do they really expect the kids to swallow that?
Except it’s not a “fluffy wuffy kangaroo”, but a yellow-footed rock wallaby, and the yellow-footed rock wallaby is listed as near-threatened.
And the “lovable” panda is very much endangered, while only about 10,000 African elephants remain in the wild.
Does Bolta really expect his readers to swallow his McTripe? Of course he does.
Monday 17 November 2008, 6:36 pm #Ant Rogenous
He really is a dickhead of the highest order, isn’t he?
Monday 17 November 2008, 6:59 pm #confessions
yep.
Monday 17 November 2008, 7:14 pm #DK
He’s not completely wrong on this one - kangaroo identification aside. The IUCN - the ones who designate which animals recieve the ‘near threatened’ tag Scott mentions - designate only four of the ten animals available as toys in the Happy Meal as endangered or critically endangered.
While ‘near threatened’ sounds like it’s one step away from extinction, the only ranking better for a species is ‘least concern’. A ‘near threatened’ animal is two steps away (from being endangered.
There well may be only 10,000 African Elephants in the wild (I didn’t check this) but check the IUCN and you’ll find that the population is increasing and that the species was taken off the endangered list back in 2004. (See: http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/12392)
The species of cockatoo that is included isn’t close to being endangered. The IUCN lists it as a species of ‘least concern’.
All in all McDonald’s has put together a list of ten animals it has labelled as ‘Endangered Animals’ and less than half of them qualify as such. That’s right up there with ‘Our Hot Apple Pies are delicious’ in terms of deceptive advertising.
Monday 17 November 2008, 8:17 pm #Zombie Mao
There are more elephants now?
Yay
I’m off a shootin with Sarah
Monday 17 November 2008, 8:20 pm #Broken left leg
Bolt’s “McTripe”. I like that. Just like junk food. Bad for you, very unsophisticated, and swallowed in huge volumes by very silly people.
Monday 17 November 2008, 8:56 pm #Bridgit Gread
So long as McD’s isn’t handing out money to save the yellow-bellied Dutch goose, I’m OK with it.
Monday 17 November 2008, 10:18 pm #Alister
Gold, Bridgit.
Monday 17 November 2008, 11:19 pm #daddy dave
McDonald’s can’t win.
Not only are they an emblem of Corporate Imperialism and Capitalist Rapaciousness to all good leftists, now they’re being attacked by the right.
And when they go into bat for endangered species they get no credit.
Fuck, you people are hard to please sometimes.
They’re not Greenpeace, you know. They don’t have to do this.
(cue response about how it’s all just an advertising stunt anyway so they should be grateful for even the faintest of faint praise)
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 12:46 am #JT
Damn those greenshirts!!!
They’ve infiltrated Disney, now McDonalds!!!
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 4:41 am #Andy B
I fully support any efforts to ensure the yellow-footed rock wallaby does not become extinct.
Just so one day I might be able to enjoy a McYellowfootedrockwallaby Burger(tm) with cheese without feeling guilty.
Also, this is in partnership with “Australia Zoo”. The Irwin mob, right?
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 5:06 am #Andy B
Am I the only one that picked up on this?:
http://blog.andyblume.com/?p=1627
It’s not just the animals that are endangered! :(
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 12:41 pm #John Surname
“Now they’re being attacked by the right.”
John Ray has been boycotting McDonald’s for months, ever since one of their executives had the hide to join the board of a gay and lesbian business group.
Re-reading this post, the thing that surprises me most is Andrew Bolt seems to genuinely have no idea that pandas and elephants are threatened. He’s since updated his blog saying they’re not endangered, so there. Apparently threatened animals are a leftist conspiracy. Or are we supposed to wait until they are endangered before raising awareness?
Typical knee-jerk Bolt, I suppose. Worthy conservation = leftist plot to brainwash kids into voting for the Socialist Alliance.
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 12:46 pm #John Surname
“Not only are they an emblem of Corporate Imperialism and Capitalist Rapaciousness to all good leftists…”
I suppose that makes me a bad leftist.
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 2:35 pm #Bruce
It wasn’t that long ago that Australia Zoo was a sacred emblem of all the was Aushtrayun, and that only the right could identify with. What happened?
Has Steve been dead long enough for the right to let us in on its joke?
What a back stab.
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 2:37 pm #Scott
More a chest stab, though.
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 2:45 pm #Bruce
Oh dear.
And for a moment I was thinking you were commenting on chest pain from too many burgers.
There isn’t even a ray of hope for you, is there Scott?
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 2:46 pm #Scott
Too soon!!1!
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 2:54 pm #Bridgit Gread
STEVE IRWIN IS DEAD?!?
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 2:55 pm #John Surname
Killed by a leftist stingray.
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 2:56 pm #Scott
A gay leftist stingray. With a heroin habit.
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 3:11 pm #Bron
Dole-bludging as well.
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 3:28 pm #JT
And Muslim.
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 3:34 pm #Ross Sharp
Union boss, too.
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 5:41 pm #Bruce
Of course Hitler being a lefty, right being left, horseshoes and all that, it was probably a John Ray.
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 6:02 pm #Domino
McTripe…sounds like something of Grey’s Anatomy.
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 8:15 pm #Broken left leg
I heard the stingray had a little mustache and knew all the words to “Solidarity forever”.
Wednesday 19 November 2008, 1:47 pm #richard ryan
HE is not called the “village idiot” for no reason, our Andrew Bolt!
Wednesday 19 November 2008, 3:47 pm #Bridgit Gread
I think I’ll re-draw the political spectrum as a pretzel.
Wednesday 19 November 2008, 4:19 pm #richard ryan
ANY of you learned people have any info. on this security leak Wilkie was supposed to pass on to Bolta. It all seems to be hush-hush.
Wednesday 19 November 2008, 6:06 pm #Crackles
You’re all a pack of lefty bastards with poor dental hygiene; this blog is saturated by your poor dental hygiene. Your poor dental hygiene is almost as potent as your mice.
And don’t throw me in the pool room or I’ll harm someone.
Wednesday 19 November 2008, 7:15 pm #Scott
Sorry, Crackles.
Wednesday 19 November 2008, 10:15 pm #Bridgit Gread
You’re all a pack of lefty bastards with poor dental hygiene
Not so - I floss twice a day with pages from Das Kapital.
Wednesday 19 November 2008, 10:26 pm #Bron
And I forked out $355 for two fillings, plus another $125 a week later for a clean.
By the way, because of this, none of you are getting Christmas cards this year. Too expensive.
Wednesday 19 November 2008, 10:49 pm #Alister
By the way, I can’t stand the anti-American right. First they slander the President-elect, and then they go after multinationals.
What is it with teh right and hating America?
It’s bad enough that they’re so unAustralian as to attack our Prime Minister in a time of (financial) war - I mean, you expect teh right to be unpatriotic, but don’t they know that America is the last, best hope for humanity? Have they no shame at all?