r/interestingasfuck • u/Charming_History7423 • 11d ago

/r/all McDonald's in the 80s compared to today

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u/cheeersaiii 11d ago

They went from kids/family vibe to “operating theatre please leave quickly” vibe. In Australia we had one with a train carriage for kid’s birthdays, one with a plane, all sorts of fun. I understand the change and the coffee is better for it but still change isn’t always a good thing

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

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u/RichEvans4Ever 11d ago

IIRC, The toy thing is more because a lot of legislators came after McDonald’s for giving away toys in the 2000s. The logic was that it compelled little kids to eat crappy McDonald’s food just to get a toy. I honestly think I agree.

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u/No-Improvement-8205 11d ago

In regards to the quality of toys, a big part of it is also that the EU pretty much banned plastic toys in happy meals (it have to be sustainable, and all that)

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u/7thFleetTraveller 11d ago

There are many EU laws which I'm glad about, but this is not one of them. Probably because of the nostalgia when I think about my own childhood. I still remember going to the cinema for the very first time, watching The Lion King and then going to McDonalds and getting a toy from the movie. Felt so wholesome for little me. But it was also more special back then, as it wasn't something my parents could affort every week.

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u/Brevard1986 11d ago

Nah, that age was one of wanton consumerism and little consideration of the impact. I support the push to not throw tons of plastic into landfills for so many broken MacDonalds toys.

Definitely sad that my kids won't be able to experience the craziness of getting so many random plastic toys I had as a child but we should endeavour to do better.

Having said that, I wouldn't be too critical if McDonalds decide to do a once per year promotion (e.g. anniversary event) where those plastic toys come back for a short period of time to make them a lot more meaningful.

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u/Over-Tomatillo9070 11d ago

They have done some creative things with card and paper that I have found pretty clever while staying sustainable.

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u/GayButNotInThatWay 10d ago

My kids loved the little slot together dinosaurs we had for Jurassic World, they still have them on their bookshelves in their rooms. Also really liked the metal tins of (I think) DC characters with the Memory cards that they use for little keepsakes now. Besides that they’ve not really been interested in McDonald’s or their toys.

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u/sneakyninjaking 11d ago

I'd rather they just get rid of the paper stuff too as its just not the same as a plastic toy.

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u/Over-Tomatillo9070 11d ago

I mean let’s be fair, we shouldn’t be bringing our kids there full stop. 😂

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u/ThePublikon 11d ago

There's some pretty clever stuff being done with moulded pulp. I could see it being as good as plastic from a modelmaking/strength perspective in a couple of years, if the pressure to reduce plastic in toys continues.

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u/ra__account 11d ago

One of my favorite ever Mystery Science Theatre 3000 gags was the "Unhappy Meal," where rather than coming with a toy, it came with something like a used Q-Tip. And the burger had a bite taken out of it already.

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u/chunkysmalls42098 11d ago

"I'd rather kids everywhere get a poor quality plastic toy that certainly ends up in the garbage in under 5 years. Something about the nostalgia of being wasteful"

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u/stefanopolis 11d ago

5 years is super generous. Try 5 days.

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u/Paddy_Tanninger 11d ago

Yeah like of course I remember getting these shitty toys too, but objectively it's horrible. My kids don't get happy meals when we go to McD and they really couldn't give a shit...they're more interested in the peel off Monopoly stickers.

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u/Riaayo 11d ago

Gotta get them addicted to gambling early to get them ready for mobile "games" after all, lol.

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u/RoboDae 11d ago

Yeah, I remember being a little kid begging my mom for the happy meal. I also remember never playing with most of those toys and just throwing them out pretty quickly because the quality sucked.

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u/CrusaderZero6 9d ago

The quality peaked with the transforming food items and steadily went downhill afterward.

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u/sionnach 11d ago

As a parent, the modern system is much better. They get a little book or something made from cardboard at McDonalds so you can chuck it in the recycling bin in a few days and not have another piece of plastic shot cluttering up your home.

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

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u/rcn2 10d ago

Yeah, but on the other hand it brought a poor child a few moments of joy. However much that child ‘goes without’ in their entire lifetime will never equal what one rash decision a billionaire will do. Lunch in New York? Fire up the private jet!

Lambasting the poors is just sanctimonious virtue signalling.

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u/SheetPancakeBluBalls 11d ago

Braindead take lol

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u/JesusDiedforChipotle 11d ago

I hate this comment lmao

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u/sentence-interruptio 11d ago

plastic should only come in the form of free range microplastic in our food.

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u/rockstar504 11d ago

I was about to say, lawsuits and politics are part of the reason it is what it is today

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u/Loudmouthlurker 11d ago

On the surface I agree. I mean, I still agree. But I'm also seeing some consequences of all the gray everywhere. The cashiers are deliberately kept out of sight so you'll use the screen. It's eerie and liminal. It's dark. It's easier to use the drive-thru.

Besides being hugely expensive, the food also doesn't taste very good anymore. I never have a craving for it the way I do other junk food.

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u/nevetsvr 11d ago

Eat shitty food, get a shitty prize.

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u/CatgirlApocalypse 11d ago

They could have made them improve the food

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u/SinuousPanic 11d ago

Well yeah, do you know how many happy meals I had to get the kids just so I could get myself Sonic, Tails and Knuckles the other month? They're getting diabetes for sure.

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u/AlmostSunnyinSeattle 11d ago

I mean I drank syrup out of the bottle as a child, so I'm not necessarily sure the toy was the driving factor. Probably a notable one though, yes.

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u/peepopowitz67 11d ago

I mean.... they weren't wrong..

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u/StrongTxWoman 11d ago

They should change the name of "happy meal" to "meh meal".

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u/fastlerner 11d ago

McD's "happy meal" was the king of kid's marketing, but during the 80's they all copied it. Burger King, Dairy Queen, Wendy's, Hardee's, Arby's - they all had toys/puzzles/games bundled with some type of kid meal.

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u/keithstonee 11d ago

microplastics are gonna kill us all anyway. let the kids eat mcdonalds.

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u/TheDonutDaddy 11d ago

It's definitely true. My family always talks about how growing up my sister and I would beg for McDonalds, Wendys, or BK depending on who had which toys. McDonalds had toys for the newest Disney movie? We want em. BK has Pokemon toys? Now we want BK. We would incessantly BEG, and then those toys would end up in a box never to be cared about again after a week or two.

Props to them for getting rid of that.

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u/canwealljusthitabong 11d ago

I remember watching the documentary The Corporation back in the early 2000s and they interviewed advertisers that went into detail about what they called “the nag factor” and how they would craft advertisements directed at children to compel them to do exactly what you’re describing. That was an excellent documentary and I wish more people had seen it. 

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u/Public-Position7711 11d ago

And my kids would play with those toys for like a day and it would end up rolling around the house for a few months before its trip to the landfill.

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u/cheeersaiii 11d ago

Purely transactional now… in Aus KMart has done the same thing… good luck finding any variety or brands there, it’s just one cheap brand that they own that does one type of everything… it’s so disposable and crap and boring

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u/doopajones 11d ago

Kmart in the states in the 90s was amazing, had a little concession area with hot dogs and popcorn and icees

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u/ChoochieReturns 11d ago

Blue light specials and product demonstrations. It was a party back in the day.

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u/Queen_Cheetah 11d ago

One of my fondest memories as a kid is sitting in a booth at our local Kmart, just talking with my dad as we enjoyed our Icees/soda. Now that store is just a vacant building with boards over the windows...

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u/doopajones 11d ago

That’s a great memory to have, thanks for sharing :) The one in my town is all boarded up too.

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u/Queen_Cheetah 10d ago

Aw, that's a shame- although I think there's still some stores elsewhere (like Guam). So maybe there's still similar memories being made?

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u/Think_Ad_1583 11d ago

Yo, I remember when we were getting a new target nearby earlier last year. I was hyped to see the new store and grab some popcorn from the food court. They put a Starbucks there instead of a food court

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u/doopajones 11d ago

Man, that popcorn smell when you walked into target back in the day! Mom never let me get any

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u/throwaway098764567 11d ago

there's a plant nursery near me that has a fresh popcorn stand in the houseplants area, feels very throwback

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u/Legend_of_dirty_Joe 11d ago

they always had one of these running too

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u/Alucarddoc 11d ago

It's the worst because they are all such cheaply made items all owned by Kmart. I've been burned three times now on cheap electronics like phone chargers or spice grinders that barely last a year.

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u/creep303 11d ago

I realized via frigging Lego Masters that KMart still exists there.

It folded in the 90’s here in Canadaland

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u/Scouter197 11d ago

They want you in and out ASAP. They don't want you staying and "taking up space." However, I haven't seen a McDonalds "full" in a long time. Is it working or are people going elsewhere?

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u/Username99User 11d ago

They still have the toy in the kids meal

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u/mattcoady 11d ago

Most of the time now it's just cards for some property like Multiversus or Pokemon. My 3 year old has no use for any of this, end up tossing it all in the trash. Feels so cheap compared to the cool toys when I was a kid.

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u/Benevolent_StarBoi 11d ago

In Sweden we have actual hardcover books in happy meals. I think it’s neat

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u/_Not_an_Economist_ 11d ago

We got those once in ours and my 3yo was so happy. Never seen one since.

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u/CanadianDinosaur 11d ago

Here in Canada you can choose either a toy or a book for a happy meal. You can also get apple slices instead of fries. The toys are definitely pretty shit though. Right now it's a pack of 4 pokemon cards

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u/Benevolent_StarBoi 11d ago

In Sweden we get both apple (or carrot) slices and fries

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u/a_moniker 11d ago

Yeah, my niece and nephew often get books or paper board games from Chick-Fil-A in their kids meal. I actually think that’s quite a bit better than the cheap plastic toys I used to get.

The books were just paperback, but that’s not actually a big deal for me. I feel like paperbacks are easier for little kids to hold anyway 🤷‍♂️

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u/PresidentOfAlphaBeta 11d ago

We had Legos once.

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u/licuala 11d ago

I saw they had choice between Pokemon Cards and Sonic toys (actual toys) a few weeks ago, but I don't check often.

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u/atsirktop 11d ago

it must be location based then cause my 4yo has an entire bin of McDonalds toys that she still plays with. sometimes they're trash (olympics were stupid), but they can be alright.

(yes my child probably eats too much McDonalds but she's healthy and thriving so idgaf)

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u/DOOMFOOL 11d ago

Huh, the McDonald’s I go to occasionally still puts real toys in their happy meals for the most part, they did do the Pokémon card thing as well but before and after that were actual toys (shitty toys but still toys)

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u/zeromig 11d ago

At least here in Japan, they still give toys with the meals. Two weeks ago they ended their run of Jurassic World toys. I'm not sure why Jurassic World toys were released now but I got 7 of them, just because they're perfectly scaled for D&D dinosaur miniatures.

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u/BurgundyHolly345 11d ago

Honestly, they could’ve easily kept a few retro-themed locations for nostalgia kind of like how some diners or arcades go all-in on the 80s/90s aesthetic.

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u/lazytiger40 11d ago

Don't know the reasons outside of America but here in the states McDonald's was known for two things, speed of service and marketing to children.

Speed of service came from their original operations plan to streamline to prep/cooking process to put out as.much product as quickly as they can, consistently,.cheaply, and easily (""billions and billions served""). They abandoned this in the late 90's for a more quality conscious model (made for you/right on time). They switched from speed to batch cooking as food waste costs caught up to them. The quality was there in the past just a different process. Like quickly slapping together a juicy sandwich vs. artistically creating one.. of course speed faltered but they countered with trying to put coffee Starbucks, and out ice cream Dairy Queen...instead of doing the one thing they are renowned for prestigiously....they are trying to do all things half assedly.

Kids..the big draw for McDonald's was marketing to children. Toys were good, there were collectibles, plates ,.cups, glasses...it was not just food but a brand. Kids wanting McDonald's brought parents (some reluctantly) to McDonald's. MCD had a huge commercial presence back in the days of afternoon and Saturday morning cartoons. Top two.sellers.were fries and Nuggets, which as a father myself, is most 8 year olds major food.groups.

But again, late 90's we had a phenomenal beanie baby toy promotion..McDonald's was THE place...then they inked an exclusivity deal with Disney to promote their movies with happy meal toy tie-ins. But the toys were crap. Many were more sought by Disney-crazed adults, not very "playable" as compared to hot wheels or robot burgers etc...the toys gradually became cheaply China made and boring.

As this was going on they stopped or cut back on marketing to children. They switched from beef tallow to vegetable.shortening which altered the fries taste..they had a period of experimenting with sandwich offerings, basically trying to fix what was never broken in the first place ..people became more health conscious so MCD had tinkered with their salads until they took disappeared. Quality suffered and combined with reliance of "experience" over speed...McDonald's has had a rough couple of decades...but the solution was not to go back to what made McDonald's...McDonald's ..but to go further down this rabbit hole to mediocrity. McDonald's locations, while maybe trendy, look so bland and uninviting. They forgot their identity.

And I'm not saying being more eco friendly or upscale is a bad thing, it's just not McDonald's thing. There are plenty of other places to occupy that space...meanwhile many smaller chains and mom and pops are out-Mcdonaldsing, Mickey D's.

Their problems are more self inflicted than consumer based...

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u/popeyepaul 11d ago

Those kids grew up so they don't need to entice them with toys and bright colors any more. They got kids in the 80s and 90s essentially addicted on McDonald's and now those people keep going there all their lives and taking their kids there too so the cycle continues.

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u/I_Heart_QAnon_Tears 11d ago

That may well be but you are forgetting the hard plastic seating tilted at odd angles to get you to get the hell out as fast as possible.

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u/ministryofchampagne 11d ago

Well that is because of advertising laws and children.

It is the same reason Saturday morning cartoons went away.

Children can’t be targeted for advertising. All that fun stuff in McDonalds was advertising for children.

In the US. OP was talking about Australia but maybe they have the same laws or McDonald’s corporate decided to make their branding consistent internationally

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u/br0b1wan 11d ago

It's probably for the better that they shifted their focus from kids to more adults/general public. Fast food isn't healthy and we don't need to be advertising it to kids any more than we should be advertising cigarettes to them either, and we don't.

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u/Paranub 11d ago

All because people cant be trusted to moderate themselves..
fast food isn't healthy, but neither is eating loads and loads of fruit (natural sugars still rot teeth)
but a mcdonalds every so often as a treat is harmless.
just a shame we have people feeding nothing but to their kids.

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u/dewyocelot 11d ago

“Happy Meals” in any establishment are fucking pathetic now. McDonald’s is still the best, but it’s a race to the bottom. Freddy’s literally will just have cards. Not playing cards, just like, “look! Isn’t this cardboard with a picture on it neat? Ok kid, throw me away now.”

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u/AeroInsightMedia 11d ago

If any kids are reading this, yes they occasionally had hot wheels cars in the early to mid 1990s but they felt like a step down and lighter than regular hot wheels cars. As a kid I don't know if I cared that much but obviously a little if I'm remembering this 30 years later.

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u/Prestigious_Snow1589 11d ago

I still have a few of the hot wheels from when I was a kid in the early 2000's

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u/XxOmegaSupremexX 11d ago

Here in Canada and I believe the US they still have toys but give an option to substitute for a book as well

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u/AsaCoco_Alumni 11d ago

Apple stores have a carefully curated and expensively-built aesthetic.

Modern McDs have what can only be called an anti-aesthetic. 'How can we make you leave with zero feelings, and not look like we spent the absolute minimum on it?'

People say they are apeing Starbucks, but at least you don't get sense of pressured of unease and unbelonging in a starbucks, and it actually feels like a place.

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u/dnmty 11d ago

The quality of happy meal "toys" has gone insanely down hill. I'm in Canada and have a 5 year old kid, so we occasionally do go to McDonalds and get Happy Meals. Some of the "toys" we've gotten have been trash. The worst were these board games like Connect4 that you had to punch the pieces out yourself but they were soo flimsy. Also Jenga that you had to fold the blocks from flat pieces of card, but they were not usable at all.

But the books they offer instead are actually pretty decent.

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u/youhavenosoul 11d ago

McDonalds raised a couple of generations on that stuff, and got them hooked for life. Now, as grownups, they bring their kids, but it’s no longer for the kids, if that makes sense?

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u/Longjumping_Ad_6484 11d ago

"Is the happy meal for a boy or a girl?" "A girl, but she wants the car, not the Barbie."

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u/MostlyRightSometimes 11d ago

Not just soulless, but soul sucking.

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u/StarPhished 11d ago

I want my weird clown art back on the walls.

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u/BoatZnHoes 11d ago

The outsides remind me of some Soviet block housing

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u/FlyByPC 11d ago

it's largely what got kids demanding McDonald's for lunch

Can confirm. Why vote for food when you can vote for food-and-toy?

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u/The_Shadow_Watches 11d ago

I can't remember if it was McDonald's or Burger King that had my favorite toy ever.

Power Ranger Morph coins.

But, the coolest kids toy came from Taco Bell of all places. It was....."Tamagatchi"

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u/Rough-Analysis 11d ago

Well they dont serve actual food anymore so actually its more appropriate.

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u/Rough-Analysis 11d ago

Well they dont serve actual food anymore so actually its more appropriate.

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u/dustymaurauding 11d ago

they definitely still have toys in happy meals.

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u/cai_85 11d ago

In the UK at least you still get a choice of toy/book in your happy meal 🤷

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u/Annihilator4413 11d ago

Now all the kids are addicted to cheap unhealthy fast food so now they don't need incentives like toys anymore :/

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u/1_art_please 11d ago

As a little girl I had a few Hot Wheels from McDonalds ( a gold rolls royce and a black trans am) because they were out of the Barbie toys. I wasn't into Barbie much but definitely wanted a toy!

I loved building buildings with my Legos and setting up my dad's encyclopedias as the 'street' to race the cars down. In 1985 it was the only way people would have been 'allowed' to give me a more fun boys toy!

Thry refused to buy me Mechano :(

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u/Stunning_Flan_5987 11d ago

I thought of a prison, last time I ate inside one

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u/KiryuClan 8d ago

They still have toys there. These days they have celebrity meal deals for both kids and adults. There’s no toy with those, though.

Side note: if you were into collecting the toys or collectible cups/glasses, locations usually would sell them without a meal purchase. You just had to ask.

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u/thekingofcrash7 11d ago

They Panera’d it

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u/SmtyWrbnJagrManJensn 11d ago

At least Panera seems like it wants people to be in there. Every McDonald’s I go to now has no electric plugs in sight or drink machine