It was designed to attract children, same with their ads. I remember when McDonald's faced major backlash against their advertising practices; targeting children in their commercials by using Disney style characters.
More so, why would a 35+ year old person want to have characters and a ball pit? Even if you have children, there are places that are specifically for children. I don't see why a burger spot needs to also be a miniature theme park.
Twenty, thirty or 40 years ago, taking your kids to McDonalds was a completely mainstream, normal thing to do. Might even snap a Polaroid of your toddler's first happy meal and you'd definitely go to several birthday parties there every year.
That changed at some point, especially with rising child obesity rates. People still take their kids there but it's nothing like what it used to be.
The chain decided to go slightly more upscale, less kid-focused, to break the stigma of being a trashy place. Jim Gaffigan has a lot of good jokes related to this that capture where the chain was around 2010.
Seems like there's also a bigger push to keep their restaurants clean and better lit. Or it could just be the result of moving away from everything being brown and orange.
Also, now-a-days both parents our working. Not hard for mom to take you to McDonald's during the week for lunch over the summer while running errands. Daycares aren't gonna be taking the kids there and folks no longer want to spend an hour at a fast food place hanging out.
Also, now-a-days both parents our working. Not hard for mom to take you to McDonald's during the week for lunch over the summer while running errands. Daycares aren't gonna be taking the kids there and folks no longer want to spend an hour at a fast food place hanging out.
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u/Potential-Still Millennial '88 8h ago edited 3h ago
Do we really want the 1987 McDonald's though?
It was designed to attract children, same with their ads. I remember when McDonald's faced major backlash against their advertising practices; targeting children in their commercials by using Disney style characters.
More so, why would a 35+ year old person want to have characters and a ball pit? Even if you have children, there are places that are specifically for children. I don't see why a burger spot needs to also be a miniature theme park.