Ronald McHummer is not the name of a gay Scottish porn star, as I first assumed, but is instead a Web site set up by some people who feel that the toy Hummers that come with McDonald's Happy Meals are sending the wrong message to kids. No one has asked my opinion on this, but that's never stopped me from expressing it, so here goes: I have no opinion. More precisely, my feelings on SUVs and their affect on the environment is a moot point. To me, this is a matter of picking your battles, and going after trinkets that come in a box with a lamp-heated patty on a stale bun and lukewarm french fries doesn't seem like it's going to do much for your cause. The site has a program where you can create an anti-SUV slogan on a McDonald's sign, but that's only going to attract people who already have negative feelings toward those vehicles. To be fair, the site does link to other sources to back up some of their claims, but saying a toy Hummer is somehow going to lead to kids purchasing them later in life is like saying any kid with the game Operation is going to grow up to be a surgeon. Okay, I was trying to be funny there, but my point is that to a small child, these are toys and nothing more. They'll wind up in the toy box with everything else and will not, as the site seems to suggest, plant some kind of subconscious message in their minds that will render them powerless to resist the urge to buy an SUV when they get older.Happy Meal Hummers make some not so happy
Ronald McHummer is not the name of a gay Scottish porn star, as I first assumed, but is instead a Web site set up by some people who feel that the toy Hummers that come with McDonald's Happy Meals are sending the wrong message to kids. No one has asked my opinion on this, but that's never stopped me from expressing it, so here goes: I have no opinion. More precisely, my feelings on SUVs and their affect on the environment is a moot point. To me, this is a matter of picking your battles, and going after trinkets that come in a box with a lamp-heated patty on a stale bun and lukewarm french fries doesn't seem like it's going to do much for your cause. The site has a program where you can create an anti-SUV slogan on a McDonald's sign, but that's only going to attract people who already have negative feelings toward those vehicles. To be fair, the site does link to other sources to back up some of their claims, but saying a toy Hummer is somehow going to lead to kids purchasing them later in life is like saying any kid with the game Operation is going to grow up to be a surgeon. Okay, I was trying to be funny there, but my point is that to a small child, these are toys and nothing more. They'll wind up in the toy box with everything else and will not, as the site seems to suggest, plant some kind of subconscious message in their minds that will render them powerless to resist the urge to buy an SUV when they get older.Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. This whole anti-McHummer thing is much ado about nothing. The car in my son's Happy Meal today is not going to influence his car buying decisions 20 years from now. If you bothered to talk to an actual child, you might have learned that the toy hummer doesn’t burn any gas at all. It's just a toy ... car.
3. It is a toy. Children play with toys. My son loved the pirate stuff they offered before the trucks as well, but I don't think he will be hijacking ships when he grows up.
Posted at 7:16PM on Aug 28th 2006 by Jeff Hendren









1. I think this is a perfect example of synergy at work. After all, all those kids are going to need a Hummer, since eating at McDonald's will ensure that only a Hummer could ferry their fat asses to and fro.
Posted at 6:15PM on Aug 16th 2006 by Rob Stevens