New York
CNN Business
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McDonald’s said this week that it has sold half of its Happy meal aimed at adults –Cactus Plant Flea Market Boxes– in just four days. But four decades ago, when Happy Meal first launched, the company didn’t get there.
“They were a little reluctant. They didn’t accept it right away,” Bob Bernstein, the advertising executive who created Happy Meals in the late 1970s, said in a video interview from his Kansas City office. , which is decorated with Happy Meal memorabilia and original artwork. “For us, that’s convincing.”
Bernstein, whose advertisement the firm run marketing for McDonald’s
(MCD) in several cities, worked with McDonald’s
(MCD) for a decade before Happy Meal debuted.
He specializes in children’s marketing and has invented a number of promotional gifts that McDonald’s gives to children, such as the Happy Cup for Ronald McDonald with a flying hamburger, the golden dome Sippy Dipper and McDonald’s pencil puppet.
But McDonald’s is losing ground in the market for children and families.
McDonald’s changed its store design from red and white brick buildings to brick in the 1970s, something kids hated, and competitors like Burger Chef are winning gifts for kids. Burger King has also started using the “King” character to appeal to children.
So McDonald’s asked Bernstein and his team to develop a concept to engage families again.
“We lost the approval of the kids,” he said. “We want to re-establish ourselves with children and families and say we are very child-friendly.”
Bernstein watched his young son eat cereal every day and noticed that every morning, he would pick up the cereal box and stare at it all over the place, day in and day out. It was something of a revelation, and he realized that “children want to do something while they eat.”
So Bernstein and his team decided to create a baby food box for McDonald’s, with the company’s golden arch as the handle and quizzes, puzzles, games, and comic strips on the side. outside for kids to join in as they eat. Bernstein and his team tapped illustrators around the country to make the boxes stand out.
The name of the meal is a branch of 1960s McDonald’s jingle, where it calls itself a “happy place”. “It’s a happy place / Hap, hap, hap, happy place,” it went.
In 1977, the Happy Meal, which came with a regular-sized burger, fries, Keebler cookies, a soda, and a Cracker Jack surprise toy, debuted at franchise stores only. McDonald’s in Kansas City, Denver and Phoenix as a promotional item. For some reason, the company’s corporate offices outside of Chicago were reluctant to roll out Happy Meals nationwide.
“The company didn’t grab it right away,” says Bernstein. “They want to see more testing. That’s a bit unusual.”
After more than a year of successful testing, Happy Meal was released nationally in 1979.
The $1.10 circus-themed meal and its first toys were a McDoodle pencil, a spinning top, an eraser, and other products. “Your kids will love the McDonald’s Happy Meal. It’s food and joy in one box,” Advertisement that year.
Later that year, McDonald’s created a meal associated with the premiere of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” the first of many Happy Meal promotions for the movie. television the point There’s a scene where Klingon tells parents to take their kids to McDonald’s for a Star Trek meal.
However, Happy Meal is not accepted by many franchise owners, who worry it will disrupt their operations.
“It’s not like that,” says Colleen Fahey, creative director at advertising agency Frankel, which worked with McDonald’s to turn the Happy Meal from a promotional item to a permanent menu item in the 1980s. must be a very common concept.
“The boxes are very complicated. They have to find a place to put the toys,” she said. “They think it’s too complicated for their operations.”
But as sales soar, McDonald’s and its franchise operators have grown to love the Happy Meal, thanks in large part to the popularity of the meal toy and the significant addition of Chicken McNuggets to the lineup. in 1984.
Bernstein did not participate in McDonald’s Happy Meal strategy after the strategy was rolled out nationally. (He and his agency continued to work with McDonald’s until earlier this year.)
Although his version of Happy Meal focused on the outside of the box designs, the toys became its main appeal. McDonald’s became one of the largest toy distributors in the country, and the toys became a collector’s item. The classic Happy Meal toy is now on sale for up to $50 on eBay.
McDonald’s then began collaborating with Hollywood studios and major toy manufacturers like Mattel
(MAT) to create limited-time meals around hot toys, such as Muppet Babies in 1987 and Hot Wheels a year later.
During the 1990s, Beanie Babies, Transformers and Power Rangers Happy Meal toys were McDonald’s bestsellers. And in 1996, the company signed a 10-year contract with Disney
(DIS) to create their movie-inspired toys.
Jonathan Maze, editor-in-chief of Restaurant Business Magazine, says meals are an integral part of McDonald’s success with families.
“McDonald’s position in the restaurant industry is second to none, and in large part because it has a home market,” he said. “Burger King and Wendy’s have always struggled to appeal to families the McDonald’s way.”
If the kids want the Happy Meal and the accompanying toys, they’ll urge their parents to take them to McDonald’s, where the chain can sell food for the whole family, he said.
But the nutritional value of the Happy Meal and McDonald’s marketing tactics to children were criticized from the outset for contributing to childhood obesity.
In the mid-2000s, pressure on McDonald’s increased to make meals healthier and get rid of toys because they were essentially a sales gimmick to reach children.
In 2011, San Francisco passed law, still in effect, prohibits McDonald’s and fast food chains from including free toys or other incentives with children’s meals that do not meet minimum nutritional standards. (Customers can buy a toy for an extra 10 cents, and McDonald’s donates the proceeds to charity.)
Cities and states are also beginning to set nutritional standards for children’s meals. The first meal policy for children was passed in 2010 in Santa Clara County, California, and nearly two dozen other states and localities have adopted the child meal policy, according to the Center for Science in the Good. Public, a consumer advocacy group.
In response, McDonald’s made a series of changes to the Happy Meal.
McDonald’s has more than halved servings of french fries, added apples to the meal, and offers low-fat, low-sugar chocolate milk. It also phased out soda in 2013 and in 2018 announced Cheeseburgers will not be part of the mealthough parents can still claim them.
And it did reduce the calorie count of the meal. Today, there are 475 calories in the Happy Meal, down about 20% from five years ago.
McDonald’s told CNN Business that the company is “committed to responsible marketing and helping lead the industry in self-regulatory advertising for children” and only advertises Happy Meal packages that meet nutritional criteria set by industry groups out.
Lindsay Moyer, a registered dietitian at the Center for Science in the Public Interest who studies fast meals for children, said McDonald’s has taken the lead among fast food chains in improving meals. for children.
She applauded McDonald’s for getting rid of the soda, shrinking the fries and adding fruit. But these steps are “patchy,” and the Happy Meal is still completely unhealthy, she says. “There aren’t many foods that are rich in nutrients.”
She noted that McDonald’s had said it would find a way to add grains or vegetables to the meal, but nothing changed.
And what’s included in the Happy Meal – and what’s left of it – isn’t just about the food. “The important thing is norms and habits. She told the children that “this is what the meal is”. Hanging toys that force kids to eat burgers and fries also “make it harder for parents to encourage healthy eating.”
