The company's strategy raises interesting questions for the marketing industry: one being whether the likely backlash is worth the effort and investment, and another being whether McDonald's has a hope of transforming its reputation through such tactics.
The difficulty for McDonald's is that the decision to raise its head fully above the healthy eating parapet - let's not forget that nutritional literature has been available in UK outlets for years - is that it is a reactive, rather than a proactive, decision. With your back against the wall is never a healthy position from which to make a key communications decision.
The catalogue of problems facing McDonald's is well documented, but boils down to stagnating sales and a slowdown in store openings against a rising tide of activism on both food issues and globalisation.
McDonald's options - if we can call them that - were either to do nothing in the forlorn hope that brickbats would be cast elsewhere or to join the Department of Health 'five a day' promotional programme.
Against such a background, the strategy McDonald's has adopted looks to be the strongest. While it has not ruled out applying to use the DoH's healthy eating symbol, there is no guarantee it will be allowed to do so. By creating its own healthy eating literature, McDonald's sidesteps potential rejection and puts the DoH on the back foot in terms of gaining access to a significant consumer base with which it would dearly like to communicate.
Will it aid McDonald's sales and standing? The recent experiences of Cadbury with its 'Get Active!' promotion prove that this is by no means a win-win strategy, as cries of hypocrisy are inevitable from certain quarters.
It is unlikely that McDonald's healthy eating activity will bring a whole new group of customers through its doors. It will, however, limit the damage that can be done to its reputation by campaigning food groups.
Happy Meal Fruit Bags and guides on how to tempt kids to eat their five portions of fruit and vegetables a day do not change the fundamentals of McDonald's brand offering, but it does put the focus back where it should be - on the rights of consumers to make their own choice. It's a focus that should help healthy eating activists to see that education, rather than accusation, is a more constructive way to improve UK diets.
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