--- title: Mom and Consumer Group Sue McDonald’s For Luring Kids with Happy Meal Toys description: In conjunction with the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Monet Parham, a 41-year-old mother of two, filed a class action against McDonald's... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7143145/mom-and-consumer-group-sue-mcdonalds-for-luring-kids-with-happy-meal-toys/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2010-12-15T21:34:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T11:21:55.203Z article:section: Health og:title: Mom and Consumer Group Sue McDonald’s For Luring Kids with Happy Meal Toys og:description: In conjunction with the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Monet Parham, a 41-year-old mother of two, filed a class action against McDonald's... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7143145/mom-and-consumer-group-sue-mcdonalds-for-luring-kids-with-happy-meal-toys/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cabbb15a288b656/698a9505db2987541b271fa0/happymealcropped.jpg?branch=production&width=307&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 307 og:image:height: 173 og:image:alt: San Francisco Votes To Ban McDonalds Happy Meals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mom and Consumer Group Sue McDonald’s For Luring Kids with Happy Meal Toys twitter:description: In conjunction with the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Monet Parham, a 41-year-old mother of two, filed a class action against McDonald's... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cabbb15a288b656/698a9505db2987541b271fa0/happymealcropped.jpg?branch=production&width=307&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) # Mom and Consumer Group Sue McDonald's For Luring Kids with Happy Meal Toys > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Dec 15, 2010 9:34 PM UTC  SAN FRANCISCO, CA - NOVEMBER 03: A photo illustration of a Happy Meal at McDonald's on November 3, 2010 in San Francisco, California. San Francisco became the first city in the nation to pass a law to control giving away free toys with unhealthy meals for children. The law requires that any restaurant kid's meals meet nutritional standards before they can be sold with toys. (Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images) SAN FRANCISCO, CA - NOVEMBER 03: A photo illustration of a Happy Meal at McDonald's on November 3, 2010 in San Francisco, California. San Francisco became the first city in the nation to pass a law to control giving away free toys with unhealthy meals for children. The law requires that any restaurant kid's meals meet nutritional standards before they can be sold with toys. (Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images)Getty Images—2010 Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Dec 15, 2010 9:34 PM UTC In conjunction with the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Monet Parham, a 41-year-old mother of two, filed a class action against McDonald’s on Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court, claiming that the fast food chain’s practice of giving away toys with Happy Meals is a form of deceptive advertising to children.more The CSPI also claims that McDonald’s uses Happy Meals toys to circumvent parental control, and to teach children to want unhealthy, calorie-packed foods that are high in salt, sugar and fat. “Marketing to kids is an end-run around parental control,” Stephen Gardner, CSPI’s director of litigation, [told](http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/12/15/132078519/consumer-group-sues-mcdonalds-over-happy-meal-toys) NPR. (**More on Time.com:** [Study: Fast-Food Ads Target Kids with Unhealthy Food, and It Works](http://healthland.time.com/2010/11/08/study-fast-food-ads-target-kids-with-unhealthy-food-and-it-works/)) CSPI explained its position in a [statement](http://www.cspinet.org/new/201012151.html) it released about the lawsuit: --- > “” --- “I don’t think it’s O.K. to entice children \[to get\] Happy Meals with the promise of a toy,” Parham said in a press statement, complaining that she was tired of her daughters, ages 6 and 2, coveting the entire set of collectible toys from a “Shrek Forever After” promotion at the restaurant, which would have required weekly Happy Meal purchases to obtain. She added that for her children the McDonald’s visits were about the toys, not the food, and that they were too young to understand the nuance of advertising. (**More on Time.com:** [No Vegetable, No Toy: San Francisco Mimics Parents Everywhere](http://healthland.time.com/2010/11/03/no-vegetable-no-toy-san-francisco-mimics-parents-everywhere/))[](http://healthland.time.com/?N=0&Nty=1&s=mcdonald%27s&x=16&y=20&p=0&cmd=tags&srchCat=Wellness#ixzz18Dgz4Sk0) As we [wrote](http://healthland.time.com/2010/11/08/study-fast-food-ads-target-kids-with-unhealthy-food-and-it-works/#ixzz18D8ITaHf) earlier on Healthland, a recent study by Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity found that child-targeted marketing at fast-food restaurants works: --- > “” --- Parham and CSPI are not the first to object to Happy Meal toys — in early November, San Francisco’s city council agreed to ban toys from the packaged meals unless they met nutritional criteria for salt, sugar, fat and calories, as well as a fruit or vegetable component. (**More on Time.com:** [Judge to McDonald’s: Pay $17,500 For Making Your Employee Fat](http://healthland.time.com/2010/10/28/judge-to-mcdonalds-pay-17500-for-making-your-employee-fat/)) Previously, CSPI has sued Kellogg’s for advertising unhealthy cereals to young children and KFC for its use of partially-hydrogenated oil, which made the fried items on its menu high in trans fats. Both suits were settled when Kellogg’s and KFC implemented internal reforms. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7143145/mom-and-consumer-group-sue-mcdonalds-for-luring-kids-with-happy-meal-toys/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7143145/mom-and-consumer-group-sue-mcdonalds-for-luring-kids-with-happy-meal-toys/"},"headline":"Mom and Consumer Group Sue McDonald's For Luring Kids with Happy Meal Toys","datePublished":"2010-12-15T21:34:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T11:21:55.203Z","description":"In conjunction with the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Monet Parham, a 41-year-old mother of two, filed a class action against McDonald's...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7143145/mom-and-consumer-group-sue-mcdonalds-for-luring-kids-with-happy-meal-toys/","keywords":["Lawsuit"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cabbb15a288b656/698a9505db2987541b271fa0/happymealcropped.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cabbb15a288b656/698a9505db2987541b271fa0/happymealcropped.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"San Francisco Votes To Ban McDonalds Happy Meals","caption":"San Francisco Votes To Ban McDonalds Happy Meals","creditText":"Getty Images—2010 Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7143145/mom-and-consumer-group-sue-mcdonalds-for-luring-kids-with-happy-meal-toys/","name":"Mom and Consumer Group Sue McDonald's For Luring Kids with Happy Meal Toys"}}]}] ```