The contrarian efforts of McDonald’s to combine Happy Meals with health have come a cropper, after the fast food chain decided to drop an activity tracker it was giving to kids along with fries and McNuggets.
The Step-It activity tracker – probably the most disappointing Happy Meal toy in history, from a child’s perspective – was found to give some kids a rash.
Handed out with Happy Meals in the US and Canada, Step-It counted steps and featured blinking lights to indicate how quickly or slowly the person was moving, when they weren’t gobbling down Maccies’ grub.
Related: 10 best activity trackers right now
A McDonald’s spokesperson said ”after receiving limited reports of potential skin irritations that may be associated from wearing the band,” they would be removed from Happy Meal boxes (via PC Mag).
“Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our customers and we are fully investigating this issue.
“Our restaurants are now offering our youngest guests an alternative Happy Meal toy.”
Those kids disappointed they won’t be able jump on the wearable tech bandwagon may not be enthused to know that eating too many Happy Meals will probably give them bad skin regardless.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.