Not What You Would Expect

By now you’ve probably seen the story on your local news about McDonald’s recalling the glasses that were part of their latest movie tie-in, and you probably yawned – unless your kids were drinking out of a set, in which case you probably ran straight out to the restaurant and/or the poison control center to do something about the situation. For most of us, though, it’s just another case of a cheap imported product that turned out to not meet U.S. safety laws, and apparently not even a very serious case – the last set of children’s jewelry recalls had much higher concentrations of heavy metals involved. What makes this case interesting is the long-term implications – and the fact that, up until now, McDonald’s has always been able to avoid this sort of fiasco…

The story has been all over the Internet, but here’s an iteration of the Associated Press version of the story by way of the Houston Chronicle website. If you read down past the fear-mongering headlines and consider the facts of the case, it becomes clear that the McDonald’s promotional glasses don’t even violate U.S. safety standards; the recall is voluntary, and the company is well within compliance of all Federal laws. In fact, the only potential danger from these items is long-term low-level exposure, if the pigments eventually break down and the user gets some on his or her skin and then puts it in his or her mouth. But no one wants to have to deal with such things, and McDonald’s has very sensibly issued a voluntary recall. This does not take into account all of the similar promotional items given away or sold over the past 30 years or so, however…

If the risks with this item are actually significant, then the real problem isn’t glasses which were issued just a few weeks ago – which won’t be dangerous for years or decades to come – but the ones sold decades ago. There don’t appear to have been any reported cases of heavy metal poisoning that would align with such products, but the risks of cadmium exposure were less well understood back in the 1970s and 1980s, and it’s theoretically possible that there have been some such effects. Anyone still using the old decorated glass wear should probably consider retiring it, and you’ll have to stay tuned for whatever legal, medical or social consequences result, since so far nothing seems to have happened. But what’s even more surprising is that McDonald’s is in this situation in the first place…

Since the introduction of the Happy Meal in 1979, McDonald’s has been selling small, cheap trinkets along with the occasional larger tie-in merchandising item, and they’ve been importing these toys since at least the early 1990s. In all of that time the company has never had a product recall situation like this one; apart from the occasional product safety issue where some child got hold of an age-inappropriate item, the program has been relatively free of bugs. You have to wonder if there have been personnel changes at corporate headquarters, or if they’re using different business partners overseas, or what, but this is not the sort of error you would have expected to see the company make – not least of all because of the importance of trust in the food service industry…

If people start to believe that your company is being careless with heavy metals and toxins, it won’t take much to get them to start believing that you’re also being careless with other factors that could damage their health, or even that some other brand might be slightly less hazardous. It’s a trust-oriented business, and McDonald’s has always stayed well ahead of that curve, featuring product safety and food purity long before those concepts became popular in the industry. Of course, the voluntary recall should go a long way towards saving the situation, and I’d be willing to bet that it will be a few years before the company tries selling any other tie-in products that go in your mouth. We’ll just have to wait and see what long-term impact, if any, this has on their performance…