"Unfair" = not doing what the left wants

Author: Timothy Sandefur

The Center for Science in The Public Interest, a leftist private interest group that uses the word “science” to make itself sound objective and intellectual, has announced plans to sue McDonald’s for giving away toys with Happy Meals. The rationale is that kids beg for the toys, pressuring parents unto buying kids Happy Meals, thereby poisoning the youth of America. Never mind that there is nothing even arguably “unfair” or “deceptive” about such marketing–and never mind that it’s a parent’s duty to resist the begging of children for things they shouldn’t have….

I guess today a Puritan is someone afraid that somebody, somewhere, is eating something with trans-fats. But it’s fair to say that when the laws against deceptive and unfair advertising were written, they were meant to prevent fraud and cheating–not to provide lobbying groups with opportunities for beating up their favorite scapegoats. Now, it’s likely that this is just a publicity stunt (in which case, I guess it worked) but if such a lawsuit ever does materialize, it deserves to be dismissed as abusive and frivolous.