Happy Meal
Encyclopedia
A "Happy Meal" is a meal
Meal
A meal is an instance of eating, specifically one that takes place at a specific time and includes specific, prepared food.Meals occur primarily at homes, restaurants, and cafeterias, but may occur anywhere. Regular meals occur on a daily basis, typically several times a day...

 specifically marketed at children, sold at the fast-food chain McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...

 since June 1979. A toy
Toy
A toy is any object that can be used for play. Toys are associated commonly with children and pets. Playing with toys is often thought to be an enjoyable means of training the young for life in human society. Different materials are used to make toys enjoyable and cuddly to both young and old...

 is typically included with the food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...

, both of which are usually contained in a small box or paper bag with the McDonald's logo.

Product description

In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 the Happy Meal includes:
  • a side order consisting 20% less fries than a small order and apple slices with caramel dipping sauce.
  • a soft drink
    Soft drink
    A soft drink is a non-alcoholic beverage that typically contains water , a sweetener, and a flavoring agent...

     (35.5 cl (12 ounces)), milk, chocolate milk, or apple juice.
  • a hamburger
    Hamburger
    A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...

    , cheeseburger
    Cheeseburger
    A cheeseburger is a hamburger with cheese that has been added to it. Traditionally, the cheese is placed on top of the patty, but the burger can include many variations in structure, ingredients, and composition...

    , or a four or six piece order of Chicken McNuggets
    Chicken McNuggets
    Chicken McNuggets are a product offered by international fast-food restaurant chain McDonald's and are one of the most popular trademarked items on the McDonald's menu....

     with dipping sauce.
  • In 2011 Happy Meals include hamburger
    Hamburger
    A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...

    , cheese burger, McDouble, or a four or six piece order of Chicken McNuggets
    Chicken McNuggets
    Chicken McNuggets are a product offered by international fast-food restaurant chain McDonald's and are one of the most popular trademarked items on the McDonald's menu....

     with dipping sauce. Child Sized fries and apple slices are now included in the happy meal.
  • In 2009, they launched a Happy Meal Wrap, only to be discontinued later that year due to low sales.


In Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

 the Happy Meal includes:
  • a side order consisting of a small order of french fries or a mini-salad with tomato, cucumber and mayonnaise.
  • a soft drink (450 or 350 or 250 ml), water, orange/apple juice or tea .
  • a hamburger, a cheeseburger, a McToast, a McPuisor or a four piece order of Chicken McNuggets with no sauce.


In Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 the Happy Meal includes:
  • a side order consisting of a small order of (french fries) or sliced apples with a sauce (tomato or barbecue)
  • A soft drink (35.5 cl (12 ounces)), strawberry, chocolate or vanilla thickshake, orange juice
    Orange juice
    Orange juice is a popular beverage made from oranges. It is made by extraction from the fresh fruit, by desiccation and subsequent reconstitution of dried juice, or by concentration of the juice and the subsequent addition of water to the concentrate...

     or water.
  • a cheeseburger, hamburger, Chicken snack wrap or three to six pieced order of Chicken McNuggets.


In 2007 a pasta zoo Happy Meal was introduced. It was discontinued in 2008.

In some countries, the choices have been expanded to include items such as a grilled cheese sandwich (known as a "Fry Kid"), or more "healthy" options such as apple slices, a mini snack wrap, salads or pasta, as one or more of the options.

In most countries, McDonald's introduced a "healthy option" to the Happy Meal- children have always been able to choose milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...

 with their Happy Meal and the chain added fruit juice drink instead of a soft drink, and bags of dried fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 (or a whole piece of fruit such as an apple
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...

, or carrot
Carrot
The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, red, white, and yellow varieties exist. It has a crisp texture when fresh...

 sticks) in place of fries.

Variants

  • The Mighty Kids Meal is a meal from McDonald's
    McDonald's
    McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...

     designed for preteen
    Preteen
    Preadolescence is a stage of human development following early childhood and prior to adolescence. It may be defined as ending with the beginning of puberty or with the beginning of the teenage stage, the time frames in which adolescence is considered to begin. In terms of age in years,...

    s, who are older than those who might eat a Happy Meal, but still not hungry enough to eat from the full menu. The concept is similar to the Happy Meal, in that it provides a burger or Chicken McNuggets
    Chicken McNuggets
    Chicken McNuggets are a product offered by international fast-food restaurant chain McDonald's and are one of the most popular trademarked items on the McDonald's menu....

    , french fries
    French fries
    French fries , chips, fries, or French-fried potatoes are strips of deep-fried potato. North Americans tend to refer to any pieces of deep-fried potatoes as fries or French fries, while in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, long, thinly cut slices of deep-fried potatoes are...

     and apple dippers and a drink and toy. The difference is that the Mighty Kid's Meal provides more food than what is typically found in a Happy Meal, providing a double cheeseburger instead of a cheeseburger or a hamburger, and more Chicken McNuggets (6 vs 4), plus a larger drink (16oz vs 12oz). McDonald's began offering the Mighty Kids Meal on March 30, 2001, but the concept was originally developed by Burger King
    Burger King
    Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...

     in 1998 in the form of its Big Kids Meal. Its advertising campaign involved kids being put in infantile situations, to represent that the regular Happy Meal was for younger kids. In the UK it was called the Happy Meal Extra.

  • The Go Active! Meal was a promotion for adults introduced in 2004, and lasted from May 11 through to June 7. The Go Active! Meal featured a Dasani
    Dasani
    Dasani is a brand of bottled water from the Coca-Cola company, launched in 1999, after the success of Aquafina . It is one of many brands of Coca-Cola bottled water sold around the world....

     water bottle
    Water bottle
    A water bottle is a container used to hold water for consumption. This allows an individual to transport or carry the bottled water from one place to another. A water bottle is usually made of plastic, glass, or metal, and so most can be recycled. Water bottles can be single use, returnable, or...

    , a salad
    Salad
    Salad is any of a wide variety of dishes, including vegetable salads; salads of pasta, legumes, eggs, or grains; mixed salads incorporating meat, poultry, or seafood; and fruit salads. They may include a mixture of cold and hot, often including raw vegetables or fruits.Green salads include leaf...

    , a pedometer
    Pedometer
    A pedometer is a device, usually portable and electronic or electromechanical, that counts each step a person takes by detecting the motion of the person's hips...

     instead of a toy, and an exercise booklet.

International naming

In some regions, different names are used. In Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, it is called "Joyeux Festin" (literally meaning Happy Feast in French), in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

 and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

, but not in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 it is known as Cajita Feliz (Happy little box in Spanish), in Brazil it is known as McLanche Feliz (Happy McSnack in Portuguese).

In Japan, it was called Okosama Lunch from 1987 to 1988, then Okosama Set from 1988 to 1995 (Okosama is a polite word for "child"), before being renamed to Happy Set. In Germany, it was known as Juniortüte (Bag for Juniors in German) until 1999.

History

In the mid-1970's Yolanda Fernández de Cofiño started working with her husband running McDonalds stores in Guatemala. She created what she called the "Menu Ronald" (Ronald menu), which offered a hamburger, small fries and a small sundae to help mothers feed their children more effectively while at McDonald's stores. The concept was eventually brought to the attention of McDonald's management in Chicago. The company gave the development of the product to Bob Bernstein, founder and CEO of Bernstein-Rein Advertising
Bernstein-Rein
Bernstein-Rein is an independent marketing and communications firm established in 1964 and located in Kansas City, Missouri. It is the 10th-largest independent agency in the United States and ranked 40th overall...

, an agency that has counted McDonald’s as a key client since 1967. Bernstein came up with the Happy Meal.
In 1977, the McDonald’s store owner clients who regularly met with Bernstein were looking for ways to create a better experience for families with kids. Bernstein reasoned that if kids could get a packaged meal all their own instead of just picking at their parent’s food, everybody would be happier. He had often noticed his young son at the breakfast table poring over the various items on cereal boxes and thought, “Why not do that for McDonald’s? The package is the key!” He called in his creative team and had them mock up some paperboard boxes fashioned to look like lunch pails with the McDonald’s Golden Arches for handles. They called in nationally known children’s illustrators and offered them the blank slate of filling the box’s sides and tops with their own colorful ideas from art to jokes to games to comic strips to stories to fantasy: whatever they thought might appeal to kids, at least 8 items per box. Inside the box would be a burger, small fries, packet of cookies and a surprise gift. A small drink would accompany. Bernstein named it The Happy Meal and it was successfully introduced with television and radio spots and in-store posters in the Kansas City market in October 1977. Other markets followed and the national roll out happened in 1979.

Bernstein received Trademark #1136758 (Serial #73148046) for his idea in 1977 which he assigned to his valued client, McDonald’s Corporation, on June 10, 1980. In 1987 at the annual McDonald’s marketing meeting, he was recognized for his accomplishment with a full-size bronze replica of the Happy Meal box with the following inscription:

McDonald’s Happy Meal 10th Anniversary 1977-1987
To Robert A. Bernstein, Bernstein-Rein Advertising

Thank you for bringing the Happy Meal, a bold idea, to the McDonald’s System.

Your insight and conviction truly has made McDonald’s a fun place for children for the past 10 years!

McDonald’s Corporation
September, 1987

Often the Happy Meal is themed to promote a current family-oriented movie
Family film
A family film is a film genre that is designed to appeal to a variety of age groups and, thus, families.In December 2005, Steven Spielberg's 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial came first in a poll of the 100 Greatest Family Films. The genre today generates billions of dollars per annum.Family...

. The first such promotion was the Star Trek Meal, to promote Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first film based on the Star Trek television series. The film is set in the twenty-third century, when a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud called V'Ger approaches the Earth,...

in December 1979. The packaging used for the Star Trek Meal consisted of various images and games related to the film, as well as a comic strip adaptation of the film. Consumers had to buy numerous meals in order to complete the set. In 1992, McDonald's withdrew their range of Happy Meal toys for the movie Batman Returns
Batman Returns
Batman Returns is a 1992 American superhero film directed by Tim Burton. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, it is the sequel to Burton's Batman , and features Michael Keaton reprising the title role, with Danny DeVito as the Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman.Burton originally did not...

, after complaints from parents that the movie was unsuitable for children.

In July 2011, McDonald's announced plans to make Happy Meals healthier, including the addition of apples
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...

. The redesigned meals will contain a smaller portion (1.1 ounces) of fries, along with the apples.

Happy Meal toy

The Happy Meal did not introduce the practice of providing small toys to children. In Canada, the promotion prior to the Happy Meal was called the "Treat of the Week," where a different toy was available free on request each week. This promotion continued after the Happy Meal was introduced in 1994.

Happy Meal toys have become increasingly elaborate in recent years. While initially they were little more than a cheap plastic trinket such as a Frisbee
Frisbee
A flying disc is a disc-shaped glider that is generally plastic and roughly in diameter, with a lip. The shape of the disc, an airfoil in cross-section, allows it to fly by generating lift as it moves through the air while rotating....

 or ball
Ball
A ball is a round, usually spherical but sometimes ovoid, object with various uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used for simpler activities, such as catch, marbles and juggling...

, they have gradually been replaced with increasingly sophisticated toys, many of which are a tie-in
Tie-in
A tie-in is an authorized product based on a media property a company is releasing, such as a movie or video/DVD, computer game, video game, television program/television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property...

 to some existing toy line or contemporary motion picture. Between 1995 and 2006, this was usually a Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...

 movie (Disney movie themes had also been used earlier, but sporadically). However, Disney didn't renew the contract, wishing to use their characters to promote healthier foods.

On November 2, 2010, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative body within the government of the City and County of San Francisco, California, United States.-Government and politics:...

 passed a law requiring that children's meals sold in restaurants must meet certain nutritional standards before they could be sold with toys, to reduce triggering of childhood obesity. The law, urged in part by increase of childhood obesity
Childhood obesity
Childhood obesity is a condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child's health or wellbeing. As methods to determine body fat directly are difficult, the diagnosis of obesity is often based on BMI. Due to the rising prevalence of obesity in children and its many adverse health effects...

 in the United States, would allow toys to be included with children's meals that have less than 600 calories and less than 640 milligrams of sodium, contain fruits and vegetables, and include beverages without excessive fat or sugar. The Board overturned the veto of Mayor Gavin Newsom
Gavin Newsom
Gavin Christopher Newsom is an American politician who is the 49th and current Lieutenant Governor of California. Previously, he was the 42nd Mayor of San Francisco, and was elected in 2003 to succeed Willie Brown, becoming San Francisco's youngest mayor in 100 years. Newsom was re-elected in 2007...

 on November 23 to pass the law. The law has been ridiculed by many, including the satirical news program The Daily Show
The Daily Show
The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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