Hopefully Corporate Accountability International doesn’t see McDonald’s Corp.’s (NYSE:MCD) recent headlines. On Thursday, we reported that Ronald McDonald had recently come back under fire from the nonprofit organization on accusations that McDonald’s deliberately targeted children in its marketing strategy, contributing to the obesity epidemic in the country. But after seeing the new item McDonald’s is rolling out in Japan, it seems as though CAI is going to have bigger fish to fry.
The company announced Friday that the Mega Potato will be reintroduced to the McDonald’s menu in Japan for a limited-time offering. The fast food chain’s highest-calorie item, the Mega Potato is almost a pound of McDonald’s golden french fries, and it comes in at a whopping 1,142 calories. The fries will cost your pocket 490 yen, or $5, but its 57 grams of fat and almost 800 milligrams of sodium might ultimately end up costing you more.
Was CAI right? Is Ronald McDonald really promoting obesity, but this time in Japan? The company contends that it isn’t, and says the carton of fries is perfect for sharing. In the promotional photo of the large box of fries, four different hands are digging in.
It isn’t surprising McDonald’s is pulling out all the stops to attract its customers back to the store. The company recently reported its fourth monthly global same-stores sales decline since October, and in an attempt to combat these falling sales, the McDonald’s menu has seen several recent changes. And the reintroduction of the Mega Potato may be just what the Japanese want. Japan has made it known that they love their french fries — especially last year when Japanese students were photographed having “potato parties” at McDonald’s. Now, it looks like those parties are about to be super-sized.
The Mega Potato will only be offered from May 24 through the month of June, exclusively in Japan.
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