To me, a gift certificate was delayed gratification on Halloween night. By the time my parents got around to bringing us to McDonald’s back then, it would probably be summer and the gift certificate would have been long forgotten.
This commercial is from 1986, when McDonald’s was selling books of 20 Halloween Gift Certificates for just one dollar. Instead of another candy bar, you could hand a trick-or-treater a certificate that could later be exchanged for a soft drink.
Twenty treats for a buck sounded like a great deal for the person answering the door. I’m just not sure how exciting it was for the kid standing there with a bag full of candy they could eat that night.
What surprised me is how far back the idea goes. McDonald’s was offering Halloween gift certificates at least as early as 1973, so this had already been around for years by the time this commercial aired.
And 1986 was also the year McBoo, McPunk’n and McGoblin made their debut — those plastic Halloween pails that probably created a lot more immediate excitement than a coupon for a future soda.
Here’s the really surprising part: McDonald’s still does a version of the idea today. Participating restaurants continue to sell Halloween treat coupon packs, although now the coupons can be good for things like hamburgers, cones, apple slices and drinks.
Maybe kids today would be more patient than I was.
But on Halloween night, I wanted the candy.
How about you — would a McDonald’s gift certificate have been a treat, or a disappointment?
Tag: McDonaldland
Happy Meals
Here’s a commercial showing the beginning of something that eventually became such a normal part of childhood that it’s hard to imagine McDonald’s without the Happy Meal.
This commercial is from 1979, the year McDonald’s took the Happy Meal nationwide. But here’s something that confused me at first: the Happy Meal actually dates to both 1977 and 1979.
McDonald’s was already test-marketing Happy Meals in selected cities beginning in 1977, and the company even filed the HAPPY MEAL trademark that year. Those early tests gave McDonald’s time to refine the meal, the packaging and the prizes.
Then in June 1979, the Happy Meal officially went national with the colorful Circus Wagon boxes. That’s why 1979 is usually considered its official birthday.
And those first boxes weren’t tied to Disney, a movie or the latest cartoon. Inside you got a hamburger or cheeseburger, fries, a drink and McDonaldland cookies, along with prizes like an ID bracelet, Doodler ruler or McPuzzle Lock.
I also didn’t realize how complicated the “who invented the Happy Meal?” story was. Advertising executive Bob Bernstein said the activity-covered box was inspired by watching his son read cereal boxes at breakfast. But in Guatemala, McDonald’s operator Yolanda Fernández de Cofiño had already created a smaller children’s meal called the Menú Ronald, complete with a gift.
And McDonald’s wasn’t even the first burger chain to try the idea. Burger Chef introduced its Funmeal in 1973 and later sued McDonald’s over the similarities.
What amazes me is how quickly it all took off. By the end of 1979, McDonald’s was already doing movie tie-ins, and from there the toy became almost as important as the food.
Do you remember your first Happy Meal — and were you more excited about the hamburger or the toy?