The fight against childhood obesity is a global one, and McDonald's is being reminded of that fact by a surprising fine by a Brazilian consumer-protection agency over the chain's promotion of its Happy Meals.

It seems that Procon, an agency in Sao Paolo, didn't appreciate McDonald's 2010 promotion of Happy Meals that leveraged toys from the movie Avatar as well as a local television series, according to a lawyer for Procon who talked with Reuters. "This is not an isolated case," he told the news service. "There's no need to appeal as they do to children without the maturity or rationality to enter the market as consumers."

The lawyer, of course, forgot to mention "parents," who are supposed to provide the "maturity" and "rationality" to supervise their children. But such trivialities haven't made much of a difference in do-gooders' global attacks on McDonald's for offering food that parents want to buy for their children, including Happy Meals.Continue reading...

Thanks to the efforts of a handful of entrepreneurs, American fast food is moving from a form of nutritional epithet to add an entirely new dimension: a fledgling business model that uses the quick-serve platform to get better-for-you fare into the mouths of more willing consumers.

At the same time, not to be outdone, traditional fast-food chains are tacking heavily into more nutritional fare after several years of more or less playing at it. Taco Bell, for instance, has just announced its strategy to offer healthier menu options, while McDonald's is veering more deeply into wraps.

LYFE Kitchen is probably the best known of the cluster of promising better-for-you startups which also includes Clover, Veggie Grill, Tender Greens and Native Foods Cafe. New York Times Magazine writer Mark Bittman chronicled some of what these brands are doing.

"After the success of companies like Whole Foods [and] Annie's and Kashi, there's now a market for a a fast-food chain that's not only healthful itself, but vegetarian-friendly, sustainable and even humane," he wrote. "And, this being fast food: cheap.Continue reading...

"I've been eating at KFC the last few days, could that be a problem?" ("前几天刚吃了肯德基会有问题吗") asked one Weibo user.

The coming week could be a nightmare for KFC in China. Depending on developments in an outbreak of a new strain of avian flu called H7N9, KFC could see its business decimated by another chicken scare just months after a previous one.

KFC is not the only brand worried. Tyson chicken is already rolling out damage control.Continue reading...

"We are… chairs. And now it's time to conquer you."

"What if we stand up?" is the message in a new ad for Coca-Cola, part of the soda maker's "4 commitments to fight overweight and sedentary lifestyle" campaign and part of Coke's larger push to get out ahead of the negative "sugary drinks" PR wave. By breaking the message that connected the Coke brand to "the problem," it's a departure from the brand's previous "obesity" messaging. 

The ad is running in Spain—where Coke just signed a new bottling agreement and launched is "Happiness" ATMs as part of its global "Open Happiness" campaign.Continue reading...

Energy drink companies think they’ve been given a bad rap. They claim to have nothing to do with the deaths and injuries of youngsters that others have associated with them. Part of the problem has been that such concoctions as Monster Energy and Rockstar Energy were sold as dietary supplements, thus avoiding some restrictions from the FDA.

Now the two drinks that have been the subject of public outcry in recent years have switched over to labelling their products as “beverages” rather than “dietary supplements,” according to allgov.com. This new designation allows the companies to not reveal to the FDA “any deaths or ailments associated with the products,” the site reports.Continue reading...

Before there was CrossFit and P90X, there was Joe Weider's mustache. That iconic mustache and the entrepreneur who wore it—Joe Weider—who built one of the most famous brand names in fitness, passed away on March 23, with his final age of 93 probably his last endorsement for a lifestyle he'd been selling since 1936.

It's a sad truth that Joe Weider's passing probably would have gone largely unnoticed by the general public if not for a public announcement by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. The former California governor and (still) current Hollywood action star posted his condolences to both his Twitter account and official website.

For boys who spent time in the gym in a hopeless attempt to recreate Arnold's physique, the Weider brand was a common sight. Across squat towers, bench press seats and plates was the Weider name in a font that looked as strong and heavy as the equipment itself. And thanks to Arnold's attachment to the brand, the Weider name on something meant quality.Continue reading...

Emblematic of the slow but steady rise in health and wellness awareness, the gold-standard of ‘conscious capitalism,’ natural grocer Whole Foods is taking its brand and business acumen into the health resort sector.

"We have the perfect vehicle for this," Whole Foods Market co-CEO John Mackey told USA Today. "Think of it as a center where people would go for a day, a weekend or a week for healthy lifestyle education."

Call it a spa, resort or "healthy lifestyle education center," it's planned to open in the brand's Austin, Texas, hometown within three years—a pilot project that could catapult the company into the lucrative market pioneered by Canyon Ranch or Pritikin, or it could be another failure along the lines of the five education-focused Wellness Clubs that Whole Foods tested in 2006, including a location in Dallas.Continue reading...

Born out of an all-too-common social faux pas in 1961—founder Jean Nidetch was mistakenly congratulated for being pregnant in a supermarket—Weight Watchers is about to turn 50. The original weight-loss brand now operates in about 30 countries with its trademark programs using a science-driven approach to help participants lose weight.

After her supermarket encounter, Nidetch, who weighed 214 pounds at the time, checked into an obesity clinic but became convinced there must be a better way to lose weight. She created a typewritten meal plan and shed 20 pounds in 10 weeks, followed by convening a small group of friends who met regularly to plan out menus to lose weight.Continue reading...