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Despite Complaints, McDonald’s And Burger King Insist On Gender-Specific Toys

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 00:05 PST, May 30, 2017

McDonald’s and Burger King are being grilled by customers for giving out gender-specific toys. The fast food giants are in hot water for selling toys based on kids’ genitalia.

McDonald’s and Burger King are under fire for asking “is it for a boy or girl?” every time a customer asks for a Happy Meal or Kids Meal, respectively. Although the fast food giants have been criticized for offering gender-specific toys for years, the issue has been revived on social media over the weekend.

McDonald’s and Burger King are plagued by hundreds of complaints from their customers for still offering gender-specific toys in 2017 despite many toy stores dropping gender labeling years ago.

A customer from New Zealand took a swipe at McDonald’s for asking her if she was ordering a Happy Meal for a boy or girl. In a Facebook post, which has generated nearly 3,500 comments in less than four days, Imogene Louise slams the fast food giant for offering gender-specific toys.

Ms. Louise’s post triggered a global uproar, with many commenters agreeing with the mother and others slamming her for worrying about such a trifle.

The woman criticizes McDonald’s for giving out gender-specific toys based on kids’ genitalia and says her daughter loves cars and “anything with wheels,” adding that if she was given the choice between a toy vehicle and a Barbie doll, “the vehicle would win nine times out of 10.”

Ms. Louise is urging McDonald’s as well as other fast food chains such as Burger King, who still believe in “ridiculous boxes society calls gender,” to let the kids decide what kind of toy they would like to get.

“Let the children decide what they would like, rather than letting their reproductive organs decide for them.”

While this is clearly not the first time McDonald’s has come under fire for giving out gender-specific toys, a spokesperson for the company issued a statement, which read that the fast food giant is “working on it,” according to the New Zealand Herald.

https://www.facebook.com/McDonaldsNZ/posts/1556865214332528

McDonald’s seems to agree that children should be free to get the toys they like regardless of their gender. The company also revealed that in the next few months it’ll be offering the choice of books with Happy Meals.

But McDonald’s is not the only fast food chain that has come under fire in recent days for giving out gender-specific toys, as its biggest competitor, Burger King, has also drawn ire from customers for offering cars in blue boxes and dolls in pink boxes.

The heated discussion was started by Zoe Fairs from Bristol, who urges Burger King to stop asking whether customers want Kids Meals “for a boy or a girl” and wonders why not ask if they want a car or a doll instead.

Ms. Fairs’s tweet came less than 24 hours after Ms. Louise published her Facebook post slamming McDonald’s for selling gender-specific toys, and the issue of restaurants handing out toys based on gender stereotypes was immediately picked up by other users.

Burger King UK’s official Twitter account responded to Ms. Fairs’s complaints by asking the frustrated mother to direct an email to the company’s customer feedback.

On Burger King’s Facebook page, there is a video showing a young boy playing with a Barbie doll while a young girl is holding a Hot Wheels car. Despite the gender-neutral message of the video, the company’s staffers are still asking that “is it for a boy or a girl” question in 2017.

Gender-specific toys are becoming a relic of the past, as major toy retailers such as Target, Walmart, and Amazon are getting rid of gender labeling of toys. But McDonald’s and Burger King have yet to get in on the trend.

[Featured Image by FamVeld/Shutterstock]

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