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If you have visited a fast food lately and ordered a kids' meal, you probably saw that they come with a variety of fast food toys. There are even ads for toys all over the outlets. It is estimated in some researches that an average American child gets the one third of his toys from a fast food restaurant, especially companies such as Burger King or the McDonald's.
These studies show us two different things; first of all, we get to understand that incentives or even toys for sale in fast foods are extremely popular among kids and parents; McDonald's for instance, is one of the largest toy manufacturers in the world, featuring more than a million different toys and a billion different figures. Some of the meal toys are based in real cartoons and TV show characters. When buying a fast food meal you can get a miniature of Lilo and Stitch, the Lion King or some die cast cars. Actually, depending on the fashion and the times, you can find different figures and fast food toys; some companies have also the exclusive rights in selling particular toys. Burger King is the only fast food company that can sell Teletubbies.
Why do fast foods give children toys, since they are supposed to be restaurants and food related businesses? It is a game of attraction actually, since kids adore toys, so that give them an extra reason to want to visit the fast food; the fast food toys become a strong motivation.
The second observation related to these studies on toys is that parents do not perform their role of food providers that successfully, therefore their children eat at fast food restaurants far more often than they should. Especially since fast foods were directly associated with obesity, parents should try to avoid them as much as possible. In any case, kids like them, but they should not visit them that frequently.
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