McDonald's discontinues Happy Meal “fitness” bands, due to cases of skin irritation

It was only a couple of days ago when McDonald's introduced a line of simple wearable devices for kids in its Happy Meals, and the fast food chain is already pulling the devices from the market. Well, that sure was an unsuccessful attempt to get kids moving after eating some generally – how do we put this gently? – not particularly healthy food.

McDonald's has taken the decision to discontinue the trackers and is pulling all existing units from its restaurants, after the company received “limited reports” of potential skin irritations that may be associated with the bands. A McDonald's rep said in an email that the company is “fully investigating the issue”, while restaurants from the chain are “offering our youngest guests an alternative Happy Meal toy”.

In a bid to shed the image of a “junk food joint”, McDonalds launched the “fitness” bands, which were pretty much simple step counters in the USA and Canada a couple of days ago, much to the surprise of everyone. It is currently unknown what might have caused the cases of skin irritation, but we are not the least bit surprised it happened, considering that similar issues have been reported by users of much more expensive wearables, such as the Fitbit Charge and the Apple Watch.

source: AP