: I'm afraid that its quite unlikely that they will listen, as this is not the first time that such views have been expressed. : A long time ago I began the MacCarrot campaign, which had the tongue in cheek aim of seeing the addition of carrot burgers. Sadly people concentrated too much upon the humorous side thus missing that we had a serious point to make. This was the reaction from Mcspotlight contributors, so one can imagine how the MacDonalds people reacted. The problem is that an issue such as this is hard to gain much support for, and when one attempts to counter this by adding a humourous taint then the whole debate sinks into a quagmire of immaturity. Sort of a catch 22 situation.
Carrot, there are reasons that McD's doesn't do them. I'm not absolutely certain of this, but I'd hazard a guess about their reasons:
1. McD's Sells Hamburgers.
When people think of McD's, the first thing that springs to mind is the hamburger. It's the defining feature of McD's - it's what they do. To maintain the "visibility" of their centrepiece product, they have to keep the product line as simple and universal as possible - which means that any "centre of a meal" that isn't a hamburger has the odds weighted against it.
Add to this the apparent feeling amongst meat eaters that vegetables shouldn't be the "centre" of a meal (a place traditionally reserved for the meat, as in 'meat and two veg' in the UK). This goes for fish and chicken as well, as they are felt to be something to base a meal around, rather than an optional extra. McD's approach to trends in food consumption is arch-conservative, to put it mildly.
2. People don't buy "fancy" stuff from McD's.
What do people go there to buy? They go for a hamburger. They don't go for haute cuisine. As such, yer average customer of McD's is a) predictable and b) distrustful of "strange" food - witness the failure of any number of new ideas for McD's food that have failed because the public stuck with what they knew. Vegetarian food falls squarely into "strange" as far as Joe Public is concerned. I think I once saw an advert for a McDonald's vegeburger. Haven't seen one since, and that was two years ago.
3. McDonald's doesn't sell "nutrition".
So said an internal company memo. They're not out to sell you healthy food. They're out to sell the equivalent of a quick fix and they make a killing doing so. As such, the selling of "healthy food" is not something they're concerned with. The only reason for them to sell a vegetarian option is to get vegetarians to spend money there.
Of course, they run into a further quagmire here - there is a certain amount of acrimony between carnivores and vegetarians (especially those give to saying "meat is murder"). Which rather limits the number of vegetarians going to McD's, as the existing menu is aimed at carnivores. If McD's started selling more vegetarian stuff, a section of McD's customers would accuse them of selling out to the Commie veggies.
Other meat-eating McD's patrons might not feel so strongly, but would feel that a) the implied message from McD's would be that there was something "wrong" with eating meat and b) McD's was being dictated to by vegetarians (and "giving in to them"). Customers would be confused by the moves. All of these would hit McD's profits. It's much simpler for them to avoid the whole trouble by just giving vegetarian food a wide berth and concentrating on their major product.
In a way, it's a double bind. McD's tell their customers to want hamburgers, to eat hamburgers as often as possible and to come to McDonald's. The customers tell McD's what to sell, and McD's adverts focus so hard on their core products - hamburgers - that they are unable to sell anything else. They're victims of their own success at advertising.
Serve 'em right, left and centre.
Gideon.
None.
