The Extinction of the Happy Meal

Ever noticed the brand new design of the McDonald’s food chains today? 

From being the children’s haven complete with the playground area to a modernized fast food restaurant it currently is, one cannot forget the good’ol bright yellow and red color hues that used to festoon every outlet. The new food outlets now sport similar colors yet of a more dull shade. Bright red to dull red, bright yellow to dull yellow. Okay, I am not making sense but I hope you're getting the idea.

Nostalgic as it may sound but I kind of like the old colors better. A very notable resource person told me that McDonald’s allegedly sold over the rights on the trade colors to the Sogo Hotel chain as a way of advertising strategy, aiming to fool costumers into entering the establishment thinking that it was a 6-storey Mcdo outlet, a Mcdonald’s complex! Okay, that was faux.

As for my last visit in a nearby store, I no longer see the hideous Ronal McDonald figure strategically placed in two sites, one in the entrance to greet the customers, another near the playground where parents would force their teary eyed children for photo ops. Has Ronald McDonald been kidnapped? If so, have we received ransom offers yet?

Who would forget the Happy Meal boxes made of cardboard with a letter “M” handle on top? I would always look forward to that visual treat more than the meal itself. I would feel that unexplainable joy and titillating excitement every time I open the box and find a plastic-wrapped toy waiting for me to get my hands upon. Now, we only have the plastic wrapped toy unattractively placed directly on the tray sans the exhilarating experience of opening the box.

 

I have this theory on the McDonald's revamp.

Since the brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald in 1940 opened their first store in San Bernardino, California, they had intended to hit bigtime and target the upscale market. They started out their restaurant domination by offering simple drive thru services until it grew into a full-time fastfood chain empire that expanded to different countries until it finally opened it's first shop here in Morayta St.(now Nicanor Reyes Sr. Avenue), Manila . 

Then, as an ingenious idea, they started their campaign by having our lolos and lolas as their first client base, implanting into their minds that McDonald's should be part of the invaluable childhood experience. So our lolos and lolas brought their children (our parents), filled their tummies with cheeseburgers, appeased them with McFlurry, and delighted them with the happy meal boxes.They breathed and lived McDonalds.

They have assimilated the McDonald's dining to the Filipino culture to the point that it already became inseparable. Our parents, imbibed with that culture, in turn, also shoved down to our throats the same menu, the same neediness for cholesterol in a bun, and we liked it. Now as we come to the point where we got used to the idea of McDonalds is for the kids, they now decided  move forward to their dream through a major outlet modern-esque overhaul. Who knows, we might see McDonalds as a formal dining resto in the future!

Then again, shall we allow the next generation to grow without experiencing the bright red and yellow restaurants, happy meal boxes, and the Ronald McDonald figure? The new generation is missing out a lot, bring the old McDonald’s back!

photo from here and here