McDonald's burgers taste better than plain paper: The power of advertising

A survey in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine showed that children thought the food which comes in a McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) wrapper tastes better than food in a plain wrapper. That is, of course, if there is actually a burger in both.

According to The New York Times "almost 77 percent, for example, thought that McDonald's french fries served in a McDonald's bag tasted better, compared with 13 percent who liked the fries in a plain white bag." The same held true with carrots.

Given that amount of fatty food that the chain serves and the problems with child obesity, the medical community, as one might expect, went wild. One of the doctors involved in the survey commented: "The best response the fast-food industry could make to this information is to alter their menus to include a majority of healthful foods instead of encouraging consumption of high-fat, high-calorie foods."

McDonald's executives took a different view. The company said that it has been selling branded apples, milk, and other healthy food for some time.

McDonald's is being a bit cute here. Most of the food it sells is high in fat and if children were given a daily diet of the stuff they would most likely become corpulent withing a few months. The fast food chain could hardly be called a shining light for the health food industry.

But, it is not the chain's job to make sure that we are healthy. It is just their job to feed us.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.