The iconic McDonald’s Happy Meal sells more than one billion toys across the world annually. Kids love to go to McDonald’s as much for the delicious food as the great toys. However, parents in Japan were increasingly wanting options other than an endless stream of toys for their kids. To spread HAPPY to both parents and kids, McDonald’s set out to develop a Happy Meal prize that would satisfy family all over Japan.

McDonald’s succeeded in creating an unseen Happy Meal prize.

A book, made in collaboration with kids across Japan. The book is filled with questions and thought-starters (centered mainly around moral quandaries/situations) collected from kids around Japan through workshops. The book is also filled with the thoughts and opinions of kids exploring the questions posited in its pages. With no “one right answer”, the book is filled with diverse and thought provoking viewpoints! This became a giveaway to satisfy both parent and child. This book is now the basis of classroom discussions surrounding issues of morality and conduct. It is seen as a great supplementary tool to the “power of thinking, deduction, analysis and opinion” that the Japanese national education system is now placing greater emphasis on. A fresh new installment into Japanese public education that came from McDonald’s.

We focused on the slight “sense of guilt” felt by many parents in Japan on giving their kids so many toys… (“Should I really be giving my child so many toys?”)

We created Happy Meal Prize that satisfy whole family.

The book is filled with questions and thought starters designed to stimulate discussion and thought. Discourse between parent and child is stimulated, while the child’s sense of morality and civic-mindedness get engaged. This project was able to tap into an area where the current Japanese public education system lacks in… to develop and stimulate “free thinking”. As a result, this book is now being deployed in classrooms across Japan.

For the first time in the world, happy meal prize was created with children.

A book filled with unique questions and thought starters that have no “one right answer”. Designed to stimulate thinking about moral quandaries and perspectives, this book is filled with diverse responses, thoughts and opinions collected from kids across Japan through online workshops, McDonald’s official twitter and other channels. We are also collaborating with schools across Japan and incorporating this unique resource to classroom studies for free. The activities were expanded nationwide.

·800,000 copies sold

·1 million plus families reached

·Now used in more than 1000 schools across the nation

·Have reached more than 50,000 kids

Garnering a great deal of attention soon after launch, the book has sold more than 800,000 copies. This project has also been heralded as a uniquely fresh approach and antithesis to the standardized Japanese education system which focuses on uniformity rather than free thinking. In less than 6 months, our “Happy meal prize made by kids” was used for lessons in more than 1,000 elementary schools across the country.