By Jahla Seppanen
Yep, you heard it right. The world’s biggest hamburger fast food chain, McDonald’s, was giving away a step tracker called Step-It to their little eaters, replacing the plastic-wrapped toy coveted by young consumers.
After being released in select U.S. and Canada Happy Meals on Tuesday August 16, the golden arches lasted some 24-48 hours in the fitness tracking space before closing the venture.
McDonald’s spokesperson Terri Hickey told SGB on Wednesday afternoon, “We are voluntarily removing the Step It! Activity Band Happy Meal toys in our restaurants in our United States and Canadian markets. It will no longer be offered as part of our Happy Meals.” The swift and voluntary removal came “after receiving limited reports of potential skin irritations that may be associated from wearing the band,” Hickey continued.
The band featured a power button on the face to direct the user to turn the counter on and start moving. Pressing down on the power button resets the step count. Other versions of the Step-It didn’t track steps but lit up when you move.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, children and adults alike should get an hour of physical activity every day.
Now that the fit-tracking revolution has replaced minutes with steps, the consensus seems to be that 10,000 steps per day, or five miles, is the healthy amount. Many consumers are daunted by this number, but forget that walking to the bathroom or taking out the garbage counts too.
What does this mean for Fitbit, Polar, Apple and others? In honesty, probably not much as McDonald’s was quick to pull the plug. Plus its a different aniumal of consumer compared to active-lifestyle industry tracker companies. The only downside could be that the McDonald’s Step-It might have given consumers entering the tracker space a false notion of how much a tracker can and should cost.
The new McDonald’s trackers were added to Happy Meals on Tuesday, August 16, in chains across the U.S. and Canada, and were reportedly going to be featured in a new ad campaign by Cossette — an agency that has collaborated with the fast-food king in the past.
Adding trending activity trackers to the McDonald’s experience could have been the biggest activity push the company has made for child consumers since its instatement of the PlayPlace at some locations. These playgrounds were introduced in the U.S. in 1987 and remain a staple of visiting the store. Looks like little ones will have to remain tracking their activity by sheer joy for the play.
Photo courtesy McDonald’s
