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: As you may or may not recall, McDonald's did try to market healthier, low fat products a few years back. They flopped. The McLean was not as successful as planned. There are some healthy alternatives still served. The Grilled Chicken Deluxe (without mayo) is pretty healthy, as are salads with light dressing. But these are not big sellers. People who frequent McDonald's do not want healthy. You can't say they didn't try. : As for inovation, well, there isn't much going on in the fast food industry. The Quarter Pounder with Lettuss and Tomato (a.k.a McWhopper) has been very successful. R&D is now known as rip-off and duplication. You should know how ever that BK started it with their answer to the Big Mac: The Big King. They will market what ever sells. Origanal or not.
To say that the McLean Deluxe was a legitamite attempt at a healthier alternative is really misleading. Taking a product that is outrageously high in fat, reducing the fat content slightly, and billing it as healthy is like sying smoking 2 packs a day is healthier than 3. While it may be not quite as bad, it is hardly healthy.
As to why The Mclean failed, one has to ask what effort was put into marketing it. How often did they run commercials on it? How often was there cupons for it? Did they ever over a discounten "extra value meal" featuring a Mclean, salad and juice? Then there was the news reports (I believe on ABC's "Primetime Live") that had employees admitting that when restaurants were busy, they didn't bother to cook the Lean patties, but instead served regular Quarter pounder patties in Mclean wrappers.
As for the grilled chicken, it is not available in Canada. While McDonalds does offer salads, the quality is no doubt a big reason for slow sales. I personally don't consider a pile of iceberg lettuce with a slice or two of tomato and cucumber a salad. What happened to more nutricious offerings like spinach, broccoli, cauliflor, peppers, legumes and many others? Another problem for those seeking a healthier meal is taht there is nothing else on the menue to go wilth the salad. And it would take a lot of Mcdonalds salads to fill me up.
None.
