How healthy are kids' meals from the big fast-food chains? If you're not sure, just ask Panera's founder and CEO Ron Shaich.
Shaich is so sure that fast-food restaurants like McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King include "nutritional nightmares" in kids' meals that he has a challenge for their CEOs: Eat every breakfast, lunch, and dinner from their own restaurant's kids' menu for seven days.
According to Business Insider:
"I want to say to them, would you really eat your own kids' meals for a week?" Shaich told Business Insider. "Would you really order it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, three meals a day for seven days?
"What do you think the nutritional content of that food you'd be eating is?" he continued. "Do you feel good about that? And, if you don't feel good about it, why would you serve it to kids?"
"I think that marketing to kids should be off limits, 100%," Shaich said. "We should not be selling to kids using cartoon characters, and we shouldn't be bringing them in on the gimmicks and the toys."
The inclusion of toys in McDonald's Happy Meals and kids' meals at other chains are designed to convince children to ask their parents to visit a certain fast-food chain. Most chains offer both healthier options, like apple slices and water, and what Shaich calls "nutritional nightmares" like soda and fries.
Shaich's challenge might be sincere, but it is also a promotional stunt to promote Panera's own new offering of 250 different "clean" menu items for children. Here is the pitch:
Hey @Wendys, @BurgerKing & @McDonalds – Would you eat off your kids' menu for a week? Join me in the #KidsMenuChallenge – Ron pic.twitter.com/v61cRNKM7A
— Panera Bread (@panerabread) September 20, 2017
