McDonald's slips on the health track, sets the regulator on edge

A recent spat between the QSR brand and FSSAI illustrates why food brands need to rethink the advertising narrative

Recently McDonald’s India pushed out a meme on its social media handles that offered up their burger and soft drinks as a far more palatable option to a staid home-cooked meal of ghia-tori (both members of the gourd family of vegetables); it was aiming for the tongue-in-cheek humour that makes such tweets and posts viral. Instead, the ad set off alarm bells. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has served McDonald’s a show-cause notice that it must reply to, by the end of the month.

“Tendency of the food companies to disparage freshly cooked food and vegetables that are