McDonald's trying a new play on PlayPlace

McDonald's is getting serious about childhood obesity--to the point where it is considering replacing play areas in thousands of its restaurants with kids' gyms where young customers can burn off their Happy Meals.

The new R-Gyms--where R stands for Ronald--would replace the slide-centric PlayPlaces with a setup offering sports-oriented activities such as stationary exercise bikes, rope climbing and other aerobic activities for kids up to 12 years of age.

The gyms are the latest effort by the Oak Brook-based hamburger giant to deflect accusations that it has contributed to the growing rate of childhood obesity in the United States. Recently, the world's largest restaurant company introduced apple slices and low-fat milk and expanded its salad offerings to boost its healthy menu offerings.

In the past 30 years, the rate of childhood obesity in the U.S. has more than tripled, leading to a dramatic increase in the number of children with Type II diabetes, a disease once limited to sedentary, overweight adults, according to government experts. About 15 percent of kids are now considered obese.

"The intent is to provide games that allow children to use their imagination in an active lifestyle," said William Whitman, a McDonald's spokesman. "This is a continuation of what we have been doing for more than 20 years with the PlayPlace, providing a safe place where children can come and have fun."

So far the concept, in early testing with only seven R-Gyms constructed, is being greeted enthusiastically. Two R-Gyms are open in Illinois: One is in west suburban Woodridge, while the other is in Chillicothe, about 10 miles north of Peoria. In addition, R-Gyms are open in Oklahoma, California and Colorado. It could be some time before the restaurant giant makes a final decision about the gyms because it typically will spend up to two years testing an idea before rolling it out throughout the chain. Nationwide, McDonald's has about 5,500 PlayPlaces at its more than 13,000 U.S. restaurants.

Whitman said customers love the idea of having this kind of interactive area for their kids.

But Susan Linn, a psychologist at the Harvard Medical School and the co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, predicted the mini-gyms won't do much to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity.

"It takes hours to work off the calories from a Big Mac," said Linn. "What it does is make it appear as if McDonald's is addressing the issue. But they are not."

"What McDonald's needs to do is stop marketing junk food to children and stop sending Ronald McDonald into schools," said Linn, arguing that Ronald McDonald promotes the restaurant at the same time he is encouraging reading or some other program.

McDonald's said redevelopment of the PlayPlaces is being conducted in conjunction with the program launched three years ago to remodel or rebuild many of its restaurants.

First opened nearly 20 years ago, the PlayPlace initially was an unsupervised outdoor playground that offered kids a place to work off their energy while their mothers relaxed with a hamburger. In recent years, most PlayPlaces have become enclosed attachments to the restaurants.

Whitman said the company has not broken out the cost of the R-Gym because it is part of the larger redesign program.

"This is an investment in the restaurant," he said.

Instead of emphasizing less-active crawling tubes, slides and ball pits, the gyms are divided into age-specific activity zones for kids.

The toddler zone is an area designed for children up to age 3. It offers a place where they can climb, play with soft balls or go sliding, according to Danya Proud, a spokeswoman for the restaurant chain.

The active zone for kids ages 4 to 8 features climbing challenges, aerobics, balancing, an obstacle course and a slalom challenge. A sport zone, offering areas for jumping, dancing and bike riding over interactive mountain trails is designed for kids 9 to 12 years old, she said.

In addition, the gyms, unlike the PlayPlace, include a seating area with excellent views of the play areas.

Whitman said, "It is primarily up to the parents to supervise the PlayPlace or R-Gym or to participate with the children."