Monday, July 16, 2007

McDonald's effect on me

When I was about 5 or 6 years old, McDonald's ran a seat belt campaign, where you'd get to check off a box on a card for every time you put on your seat belt, and when the card was full (about 25 boxes) you could turn in the card for an ice cream cone or a box of cookies. I remember it was such a special day when mom would buy me a box of those Ronald McDonald and Friend's shaped cookies or a soft serve cone. I think secretly she liked to get me the cookies because she could snag a few, but the cone was ALL MINE. So being the kid who would do anything for a sweet, I was VERY excited about this little card mom showed me.

When I was little we never wore seat belts in the car. In fact, the seat belts for the back seat were under the seat, and once this card of boxes came into my life, I insisted they be pulled out. With the power of this card, I became a tyrant to the seat belt rule in the car. Every time we were in the car I'd make sure everyone had on their seat belt.

After about ohh... 5 days, I had filled up that card. Mom took me on many errands so I had many opportunities to make a habit of this new rule. And still to this day, the car does not leave PARK until everyone in the car has a seat belt on. So even though I've had many a cheeseburger, chicken nuggets, french fries and ice cream sundaes since then, I still remember that day I walked up to the counter with my full card in hand to get my ice cream. I guess McDonald's had some good effect on me as a kid.

9 comments:

ML said...

What a cool and fun idea! I can definitely see how exciting that would be!

Karen MEG said...

I don't know if they had that campaign in Canada, but what an awesome idea and it's great that it really worked to instill such an important rule in you.
McDonalds was a great motivator for me as a kid too - my Gr. 5 teacher used it as incentive for our spelling tests. At the end of each term he would take any student who had perfect on all their tests, to McDonalds for lunch. I scored every term.
Don't know if he could ever do anything like that this day and age, but it was a fun time for us.
So I can attribute some of my writing skills to the golden arches too!

Ginger said...

I remember we started wearing our seatbelts after we were in a wreck (not a bad one but tramatic nonetheless). Now, of course, it is automatic. But you know we didn't wear bike helmets, either.

Ted said...

I think Ronald would be proud of you. :-) Personally, that clown freaked me out.

J said...

What a cool campaign! They should reinstate that!

My mom had us convinced that the car wouldn't start unless we had our seat belts on. ;)

Anonymous said...

That is cool, McDonald's should have that campaign for adults with cell phones. You can check a box every time you get in the car to go somewhere and not use the cell phone while driving.

Tracy said...

Cool! It just goes to show that rewarding positive behavior has long-term positive effects!!!

Anonymous said...

The Mc Donald's effect on me is that I can sing the Big Mac jingle by heart: two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun.

Love Bears All Things said...

I wish they still had those cookies, I loved them.
Mama Bear