McDonald’s Never Wanted To Add Happy Meals To Its Menu
Executives at McDonald's were initially hesitant to embrace the idea of the Happy Meal, uncertain if it would any market traction, but they were proven very wrong.
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McDonald’s may have sold half its adult Happy Meals, called Cactus Plant Flea Market Boxes, in just four days. But when the popular kids’ toy and burger combo debuted 40 years ago, company bosses were reluctant to introduce the product to their restaurants. Now, the advertising executive who created it described how difficult it was to convince executives to go along with the idea aimed at attracting children to the eatery in the late 1970s.
Speaking to CNN Business Bob Bernstein said, “They were reluctant a little bit and didn’t immediately embrace it. It took some convincing on our part.” At the time, Bernstein’s advertising agency ran marketing for McDonald’s in several cities and had been working with the fast food giant for a decade before the Happy Meal was introduced. He specialized in children’s marketing and invented some promotional gifts the restaurant gave to kids.
This included the Happy Cup featuring Ronald McDonald with a flying hamburger, the Sippy Dipper straw shaped like McDonald’s golden arches, and pencil puppets. But the eatery was losing its grip on the kids and families market due to several style changes at its outlets. The fast food giant changed its store design from red and white tiled buildings to brick – which kids hated. Competitors also started winning over little ones with Burger King using its “King” character to appeal to children.
“We were losing our endorsement of the kids,” he told CNN Business. “We wanted to reestablish ourselves with kids and the family and say we were kid friendly.” So Bernstein was tasked with creating a concept that would appeal to young customers. He got the idea for the McDonald’s Happy Meal while watching his young son eat his cereal. Each day, his kid would hold up the cereal box and let it pour over the sides of his bowl. It was a revelation as he realized that children want something to do when they eat.
That’s when Bernstein and his team decided to create a kids’ meal box for McDonald’s. The company’s golden arches served as handles and the sides were filled with puzzles, riddles, games, and comic strips for children to engage with while they ate. Illustrators from around the country were hired to make the boxes stand out. The product’s name was an offshoot of a 1960s McDonald’s jingle that referred to the eatery as the “happy place.”
In 1977 the first Happy Meal, which came with a regular-size burger, fries, cookies, a soda, and a Cracker Jack surprise toy, was launched in McDonald’s franchise stores in Kansas City, Denver, and Phoenix as a promotional item. However, it took a year of testing before the box was rolled out across the country in 1979. “Corporate just didn’t seize it immediately,” Bernstein explained. “They wanted to see more testing. That was a bit unusual.”
Since then, Happy Meals have become a crucial part of the McDonald’s menu and has evolved over the past four decades. According to data research firm Sense360, the eatery sells 3.2 million Happy Meals each day, generating about $10 million in worldwide revenue.
