The charm of unwrapping a toy following an after-school visit to a fast food joint has gone away -- for Taco Bell at least. The Americanized Mexican food chain announced Tuesday that it will cut its popular kids menu along with toys at all restaurants in the U.S.. Parents and health advocates have been pressuring fast food companies for years to stop marketing unhealthy meals to children, but the move was made for a much different reason, USA Today reported. CEO Greg Creed said that the chain is looking to market to a different audience and adjust its image.
"The future of Taco Bell is not about kids meals," he said. "This is about positioning the brand for Millennials."
Kids meals make up 1.2 billion in annual sales for fast food chains, according to U.S., according to Federal Trade Commission. Taco Bell is the first to eliminate them entirely. Creed said the last kids meal will be sold sometime around January 2014. The only chain that has come close to doing anything similiar is Jack-In-The-Box when it stopped giving toys with its kids meals. Business analysts speculate that the decision also came down to money as companies would make more money selling more expensive adult meals to children. Fast food chains also spend $580 million in marketing to children, with $340 million of that going toward licensing and production of toys. Still, health advocates applaud the decision as a step toward encouraging good eating habits in children.
RELATED: Taco Bell $1 Menu: New 'Low-End' Food In The Works
"[I encourage] McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, and others to follow Taco Bell's lead and stop using toys or other premiums to lure kids to meals of poor nutritional quality," Margo Wooten, nutrition policy director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said.
The likelihood of a company like McDonald's to give up its kids menus is low. While Taco Bell only makes 1 percent of its sales from kid's meals, the burger chain's beloved Happy Meal accounts for 10 percent of annual sales. The company most likely found it easier to drop its kids meals entirely considering how little it actually put forth in marketing to children, spending a mere $1.8 billion annually. Kids meals simply were not a part of its larger vision when the decision was made, the chain said in a press release.
"Kid's meals are not part of Taco Bell's long-term brand strategy and have had an insignificant impact on system sales," the release read.
© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
