THE top executive at McDonald’s vowed today to vigorously defend the company in its use of toys to promote Happy Meals.
A consumer group is threatening to sue the fast-food giant over the practice.
Chief Executive Jim Skinner, in a July 6 letter to the executive director of the Centre for Science in the Public Interest, blasted the consumer-advocacy group's stance that McDonald's use of Happy Meal toys is a deceptive and illegal marketing practice to lure kids into its restaurants.
"CSPI is wrong in its assertions and frivolous in its legal threats," Mr Skinner wrote in the letter seen by Dow Jones Newswires.
Last month, CSPI said it would sue McDonald's unless it stops using toys to promote sales of its Happy Meals within 30 days.
The Washington-based group said using toy-related promotions violated state consumer protection laws in Massachusetts, Texas, the District of Columbia, New Jersey and California.
CSPI Litigation Director Stephen Gardner said today the group was still considering suing McDonald's.
"We hope that McDonald's takes us up on our offer to negotiate an end to the practice of using toys to market unhealthful foods directly to children," Mr Gardner said. "If it doesn't, that will all but guarantee that we will have to resort to litigation."
Mr Skinner in the letter said CSPI used "inflammatory rhetoric" in describing McDonald's marketing practices.
"CSPI's twisted characterisation of McDonald's as 'the stranger in the playground handing out candy to children' is an insult to every one of our franchisees and employees around the world," Mr Skinner wrote.
McDonald's has faced criticism in the past over their marketing practices to children.
At McDonald's annual shareholder meeting earlier this year, some attendees demanded that McDonald's retire its mascot Ronald McDonald because he attracts children to the fast-food chain.
McDonald's defended the use of the clown, who is the face of its Ronald McDonald House Charities.
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