Technology vs. Entertainment Pt. 2

When I was a kid we often went to McDonalds for a quick family meal. We occasionally hit Burger King or KFC or such, but McDonalds was always the family favorite.

All grown up now I try to eat much healthier than fast food normally allows, but I do occasionally stop in for some 'comfort food' when I'm feeling under the weather (sick with a cold, or more likely, hungover (as we all know; there's nothing in the world better on a hangover than some meaty, greasy, cheezy gut-bomb)).

Recently I decided to grab a bite at McD's. Being a 39 year old man-child I usually get their Happy Meal; besides the portions being more reasonably sized (even for adults) you get a free toy (!) with each one.

This time it was a small stuffed dog called Cooper, with a tag that says 'Hotel for Dogs' ©2009 Dreamworks.

I was impressed with the quality of the toy. Well designed; the small pieces of the pattern were shaped uniquely enough to provide some character to the 3" little guy. And the face was all embroidered, instead of the cheaper felt patches or stamped ink often used.

What really caught my attention though was the 'Fetch Your Own Virtual Pet at happymeal.com' on the tag. happymeal.com? Really?

So apparently McD's has set up an online virtual world for kids. You can create an avatar, wander the world doing little quests to earn money, buy virtual crap to outfit your treehouse, etc. Or just wander around talking to other creepy cartoonish avatars.

My guy 'ginsoak' is a yeti in a top hat. Why not?

I didn't spend much time in 'McWorld', just enough to get a feel for it. And to find out that the code on Cooper's tag for a 'free' virtual pet kicked back as invalid.

I find a couple of things curious about all this, and besides the obvious 'back in my day we didn't need 'virtual pets', we used our imaginations' line of thinking.

First, only about half of US homes have the broadband connection needed for kids to visit McWorld, or 57% according to 'websiteoptimization.com'. The sociologist in me notes that the majority of homes without broadband are in the lower income brackets, a bit ironic as they are the families more likely to visit fast food chains more frequently. That's a lot of overweight kids without a chance for a virtual pet....

Second, the alarm flags that go up when an international corporation like McDonalds creates a website specifically targeting kids are dropped to half-mast when I noticed their 'disclaimer' on the main page, "Hey kids, this is advertising". Brilliant, the sort of in-your-face truth I would feel like putting on the website:

And finally, though I am indeed 39 years old and without kids of my own, I was still disappointed when my code came back as invalid. No 'free' virtual pet. The cyberspace equivalent of accidentally letting go of your balloon, watching it float off to a little dot in the sky. You haven't really missed out, at least not on something of any real value, but there's that odd, sad sense of loss....