Barbie or Hot Wheels???

Who knew that a simple question could cause quite a ruckus?  I’m not referring to the question of “Barbie or Hot Wheels?” here, rather the question of “Is it for a boy or for a girl?”  It turns out that many people are asked “Is it for a boy or for a girl?” in McDonald’s all over America when ordering Happy Meals and many are outraged because they feel the question is downright sexist.  Every now and then, McDonald’s Happy Meal comes with either a Barbie toy or a Hot Wheels toy and who’s to say that a Barbie toy is strictly for girls and a Hot Wheels toy is strictly for boys?  Beats the hell out of me!  I’m not in the mood to get into a debate, but I am interested in finding out where McDonald’s stands on this issue.

It turns out that when people take their complaints to McDonald’s, whether via e-mail or in person, McDonald’s representatives always (a) apologize for the way their employees handled the situation and (b) assure that this is not the way they train their employees in dealing with Happy Meal toys. 

It so happens that I have a good friend who works at a McDonald’s and when I told her all this juicy gossip, she immediately shot me a look and said “They don’t train us!”  She told me that all they do is tell them what the current promotion is and that’s it.  I asked her how she asks customers what toy they want and she told me that she asks “Is it for a boy or for a girl?” and that she never even thought twice about it.  All her co-workers do the same thing.  She then relayed to me that there’s been several occasions where she’ll have a parent ask for a Barbie toy for their daughter and the daughter asks for a Hot Wheels car instead.

As long as McDonald’s continues to have “Barbie or Hot Wheels” Happy Meals, there will always be controversy over it.  Personally I don’t care for either sets of toys.  Give me Disney characters any day!