McDonald's insists 42-ounce drink deal "is not super-sizing"

[matcom]

<snip>

Super-sizing is back -- for drinks, anyway.

Fifteen months after McDonald's stopped offering "super-sized" portions of french fries and soft drinks, its Chicago area restaurants are selling the extra-large sodas again. Restaurants in the Chicago Co-Op -- made up of McDonald's franchisees in the area -- have big plans for the 42-ounce drinks this summer.

"The Chicago Co-Op is running a local promotion in which customers that purchase a Big Mac and fries get a free, 42-ounce beverage," said McDonald's spokeswoman Anna Rozenich.

The promotion will start July 11 and last through the month.

In addition, Rozenich said, franchisees have flexibility to sell 42-ounce drinks this summer "because they might be located near a competitive trading area, where competitors might be offering something like that."

"This is not super-sizing," she added.

Still, getting rid of 42-ounce drinks was a key part of McDonald's highly touted March 2004 rollback of super-sizing. The Oak Brook-based company depicted it as an effort to simplify its menu, but the move followed stepped-up criticism by health advocates who charged the fast-food giant with contributing to the nation's obesity problem. It also coincided with the release of "Super Size Me," a documentary alleging bad health effects from an all-McDonald's diet.

Now, critics of McDonald's are finding the return of super-sized drinks hard to swallow.

"I guess their promises don't last very long, do they?" said John Banzhaf, a professor of public interest law at George Washington University. Banzhaf served as adviser to the plaintiffs' lawyer in a 2002 lawsuit brought by New York teenagers who charged that McDonald's food made them obese.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/business/cst-fin-super17.html

[indy_azcat]

1. nothin' beats poundin' a 40 o' MIckeys

orange slush

[cleofus1]

2. i was horrified when they discontinued the 42 oz soft drink

the fries suck now that they use more health oriented oil to deep fry them in...if you don't eat them immediately they turn as hard as wooden stakes...hell...you could probobly kill a vampire with them in a pinch...
and of course the burgers never changed in size...you just have to order a 2nd one on the side...

and so you need that 42 oz diet coke to wash it all down with!

[kedrys]

3. They just need to change the name of it

One of my favorite Animaniacs cartoons, Potty Emergency, features Wacko Warner sitting in the front row at the movies sipping his drink from a large bucket labeled "Abyss Boy". :rofl:

He spends the rest of the cartoon looking for a potty that's not out of order like the one in the movie theater.

[Deja Q]

4. "nutritional" value of that liquid candy, per TWELVE ounces:

Sugars:

Minute Maid Orange Soda (Coca-Cola Co.) 48
Mountain Dew (PepsiCo) 46
Pepsi 41
Dr Pepper (Cadbury Schweppes) 40
Coca-Cola Classic 39
7Up (Cadbury Schweppes) 39
Sprite (Coca-Cola Co.) 38


Calories:

Minute Maid Orange Soda (Coca-Cola Co.) 180
Mountain Dew (PepsiCo) 165
Dr Pepper (Cadbury Schweppes) 160
Pepsi 150
Coca-Cola Classic 140
Sprite (Coca-Cola Co.) 140
7Up (Cadbury Schweppes) 140




Multiply times 3.5 and WINCE at their LIES. ~525 calories for a supersize drink is horrendous alone, but ~140 grams of SUGAR? That gets stored as F.A.T.!

[Shell Beau]

5. Well what else could wash down 100 fat grams and 1000 calories?

[cleofus1]

6. it's traditional now

you have to order a diet...whenever getting the 42 oz

[Mizmoon]

7. Anyone tried C2 yet?

I LOVE the stuff. I can't give up coca cola - I'm a total cokehead. C2 tastes jsut like the real thing but with 1/2 the calories and carbs.

One can only has 70 calories as opposed to coke's 150 and tastes just like the sugary stuff. Some corporations are making good changes.

[BiggJawn]

8. A BARREL of Coke and a BALE of Fries!

"Supersize Me" is the real reason Mickee-Dee's got away from that name.

"No, it's NOT 'Super-sized', it's just 42 ounces..."

They screwed up. the should have had it be "only" 40 ounces, then along with their fake hip-hop "urban" ad campaign ("YO! I'm LUVIN' IT!") they could have Ronald McDonald "pouring out a 40 for mah dead Homies...Dead from heart disease..."