MyScene dolls ~ a Happy Meal on a happy beach

I went into McDonald’s today hoping to get one of their scuba cups that I noticed someone carrying on the plane.  They have since switched to the Monopoly cups, but what I did see was the new MyScene dolls playing in as Happy Meal toys.  They’re the RollerGirls as seen on TV.  The theme?  Roller skating on the beach.  What else?

Other Rapidsea posts have started to explore how kids are manipulated early on by advertiser escapism, and McDonald’s shows that it’s not afraid to use the images too.  If you’re a parent, you have to seriously ask yourself if it’s appropriate to give in to your kids’ demands to get these toys.

Part of the ethical dilemma, apart from any issues you might have with the manufacturing process, is whether or not you’re setting your kid up to have expectations of "unauthentic place" that even many beach towns can’t live up to.  Perhaps kids today wouldn’t seem so depressed in their lives if the images of ideal places were actually somewhere they could easily get to.

Of course, going back to my original purpose of finding that scuba diver, you have to wonder if you, the adult, are also being manipulated by the imagery that companies like McDonald’s are throwing in front of you.  Even if you know, obviously, that McDonald’s is not where you want to stop on your way to an escapist beach, subliminally, these images are challenging us to leave our real surrounding behind whenever we can.

A a minimum, the MyScene dolls are encouraging physical activity with their roller skating.  I guess that maybe it would be better if they weren’t stretched out so thin that they look like ready-to-snap Gumby.

In my hunt for the MyScene dolls, I started first at McDonalds.com.  I didn’t realize that I should actually go to the HappyMeal.com address instead.  I’m glad I went to the corporate site first because luckily that happy scuba guy was sitting right there on the homepage.  See:

This couldn’t have been a more fruitful trip to McDonald’s if they had served me up some of those apple sticks they have in the Happy Meals now.

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Posted on October 3, 2007
Filed Under Beaches, Food and Drink, Growing Up |

Comments

One Response to “MyScene dolls ~ a Happy Meal on a happy beach”

  1. Cody on October 14th, 2007 8:15 pm

    Welcome to the Atlanta Rollergirls. Feel free to leave any comments about whether or not you think it would be better for the MyScene rollergirls to find a new scene.

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