Latest news with #ChickenMcNugget
Campaign ME
17-04-2025
- Business
- Campaign ME
McDonald's Qatar makes sharing easier with ‘The Exchange Rate'
McDonald's Qatar, in partnership with Leo Burnett Dubai, has launched a creative take on the age-old dilemma of food sharing with the introduction of The McDonald's Exchange Rate – a digital-first campaign that translates fast food into a system of real-time, bite-for-bite value. Exclusive to the Qatari market, the activation transforms the McDonald's app into a playful trading platform, offering customers a way to settle meal-sharing negotiations with a touch of gamification. Whether debating how many fries equal one Chicken McNugget or what a McChicken is worth in soft drink sips, the tool sets live exchange rates between menu items, driven by a mix of product popularity, pricing and what the brand dubs 'overall deliciousness.' The campaign stems from a relatable truth: food sharing often involves awkward—and sometimes passionate—negotiation. By turning this social dynamic into an experience, McDonald's repositions its menu as more than just a selection of items, but as a medium for playful interaction. Promotional materials extended across in-store touchpoints, including tray mats, digital screens, and packaging stickers—bringing the exchange rates to life in physical spaces. In an added layer of engagement, fans who shared photos of their trades on social platforms were rewarded with free fries, reinforcing the idea of food as currency. 'This campaign taps into a universal truth: the most shareable items are often the most fought over,' said Sara Abuobeid, Senior Marketing Manager at McDonald's Qatar. 'By turning our menu into a live exchange system, we've created a new way for fans to engage with the brand and each other—bringing fairness, fun, and even a little finance to food.' Victor Haffling, Associate Creative Director at Leo Burnett Dubai, added: 'For many, sharing food has always been a dangerous game. Taking someone's McNugget could very well end friendships. But now, with the McDonald's Exchange Rate, you can trade without any hard feelings or Quarter Pounder-related betrayals.' The app even featured a cheeky disclaimer in its Terms and Condiments section, noting the brand 'assumes no responsibility for arguments over the value of Big Tasty bites or miscalculated McFlurry spoonfuls.' While limited to Qatar, The Exchange Rate is a local campaign that reflects the brand's continued focus on cultural relevance and experience-driven engagement. It also adds to the growing number of campaigns in the region that leverage tech-enabled creativity to deliver brand moments rooted in humour and relatability.
Forbes
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
The Minecraft Meal Hustle—How Toys Are Part Of The Fast Food Fandom
The toys used to be an afterthought—plastic prizes doled out to get kids to finish their nuggets. But the Minecraft Movie Meal from McDonald's isn't just about the Big Mac or the fries. It's about the toy. The collectible. The chase. Released ahead of the Minecraft movie's debut, this newly launched McDonald's collab features themed packaging, a Big Mac or Chicken McNugget combo, and one of several mystery toys based on the world-building franchise. According to McDonald's official announcement, it's a limited-time release that invites fans to 'build memories together.' That framing is more telling than it might seem. 'Bought 6 Minecraft meals thinking I'd get a nice spread of toys. I got 6 pigs,' one user vented on Reddit, highlighting just how much randomness—and frustration—is baked into the experience. Over the past few weeks, I've been reporting on the rise of the Minecraft Movie Meal—first as a generational moment for families who grew up on both Happy Meals and Minecraft, and then as a piece of emotional marketing aimed just as much at nostalgic adults as at kids. But the toys themselves? They tell a story of their own—one that reflects how collecting, fandom, and fast food have become deeply intertwined. This isn't new. The emotional and economic pull of Happy Meal toys goes back decades. In a 1995 piece from the Chicago Tribune, collectors and marketers alike described McDonald's toys as 'a driving force' behind meal sales, with some adults even calling multiple locations to track down specific characters. That article ran almost thirty years ago—before TikTok hauls and eBay listings gave toy collecting a digital afterlife. In 2025, the motivation has only intensified. The Minecraft toys aren't just souvenirs. They're part of a cycle—a pop-culture-meets-capitalism feedback loop that taps into the same desire that drives sneaker drops and Funko Pop walls. You don't just want one. You want the set. According to Kotler's Consumer Behavior, this is a textbook example of completion bias—the psychological tendency to keep collecting until a series feels 'finished.' Add in the limited window and unpredictable distribution, and you've got a perfect storm: short-term availability + emotional attachment = frenzied demand. What makes the Minecraft drop especially interesting is that it's not really aimed at children—or at least, not exclusively. Decades of public health advocacy tried to uncouple toy-based marketing from fast food, especially when the meals were high in sugar or fat. In a 2015 study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, researchers argued that pairing toys with food exploits children's developing decision-making skills. San Francisco even passed legislation aimed at reducing these types of promotions. But in 2025, many campaigns are aimed at the adults who grew up with Happy Meals—nostalgia has become a core marketing strategy. From Pokémon to BTS to The Marvels, McDonald's and its competitors are actively targeting grown-up fans with brand loyalty and disposable income. This kind of fast food tie-in isn't new—but what is new is how seamlessly it cuts across generations. With franchises like Minecraft and Pokémon, there's no longer a clear boundary between what's 'for kids' and what's 'for adults.' Many of the grown-ups lining up for the Minecraft toy remember playing it in high school or college—and now they're buying Happy Meals for their own kids who play it on tablets and consoles. Fast food is no longer just co-opting popular culture—it's tapping into IPs that families experience together. That creates a different kind of nostalgia, one that's both backward-looking and present-tense. You're not just collecting a toy that reminds you of being 10. You're collecting a toy that you and your kid both recognize instantly—maybe from the same game, maybe from different versions of it. It's not just a Happy Meal. It's a cultural handoff. The real story here isn't whether the toys are high-quality (they're not) or whether people should be eating more fast food (also not the point). What the Minecraft meal reveals is how deeply collecting has become part of the food experience. When meals are designed around intellectual property instead of ingredients, and when scarcity becomes a feature rather than a flaw, fast food transforms into merch. A combo meal becomes a drop. And the drive-thru becomes the new toy aisle. In a way, McDonald's has learned from both the resale market and food media: people don't just want to eat want to feel something while doing it. And nothing stirs the emotions quite like a whiff of nostalgia—and a plastic Creeper toy you weren't expecting.
The Independent
31-03-2025
- The Independent
Retiree left with ‘horrific burns' from McDonald's coffee, according to lawsuit
An 84-year-old man in Mississippi is suing McDonald 's for gross negligence over super-hot coffee that he says left him with "horrific" third-degree burns. Former oil worker Joseph Gentry, of Long Beach, Mississippi, was a "healthy, robust, retired gentleman" when he pulled up to a McDonald's drive-through window on January 14, 2023, his lawyers claim. But after his coffee cup accidentally spilled on his legs while being handed to him, he allegedly suffered "enormous pain and suffering" as well as "mental anguish" and required skin grafts. The lawsuit, filed on March 19 by Gentry and his wife Beth, raises questions about whether McDonald's has improved its safety practices since the famous and much-misunderstood 'hot coffee lawsuit' of 1994, when a 79-year-old woman sued the fast food giant over very similar injuries. Back then, a jury ruled that McDonald's had been grossly negligent in selling coffee at such scalding temperatures and awarded the woman damages, but her case was later touted as an example of excessive lawsuit culture in the U.S. "As a direct and foreseeable result of these burns, Mr Gentry suffered severe and chronic physical pain, had to undergo extensive medical treatment, incurred extensive bills and incidental expenses, and is permanently scarred and disfigured," reads Gentry's lawsuit, which was first reported by the Mississippi Sun Herald. (Warning: links contain graphic photos of injuries.) It claims that the coffee cup's lid popped off while it was being passed to Gentry due to known "design defects" and demands unspecified damages from both McDonald's and its franchisee, Ten D Enterprises. McDonald's, along with Ten D's owner Bill Descher, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This is far from the first time fast food joints have been sued over the temperature of their products. McDonald's was hit with coffee lawsuits in 2012 and 2023, plus a similar suit over a burning-hot Chicken McNugget, while Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, and Chick-fil-A have also faced legal action. During the 1994 case — formally known as Liebeck v McDonald's, after its plaintiff Stella Liebeck — the jury heard that McDonald's required its franchisees to keep coffee at up to 190F, and that this temperature could cause third-degree burns within three seconds. The trial also uncovered that the company had received more than 700 reports of coffee burns between 1982 and 1992, and had settled out of court with some of the injured people, but had declined to change its procedures. The jury ultimately awarded Liebeck $160,000 in compensation and imposed another $2.7 million in punitive damages against McDonald's, which the judge reduced to $480,000.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Yahoo
Girl Awarded $800k After Taking McDonald's To Court Over Chicken Nuggets
A family received closure several years after a frightening incident that took place after a visit to a McDonald's in Tamarac, Florida. According to South Florida news station NBC6, the fast food chain was ordered to pay the family $800,000 in damages after their daughter was burned by an "unreasonably" hot Chicken McNugget. Back in 2019, the child's mother, Philana Holmes, purchased Happy Meals for herself and her then four-year-old daughter, Olivia Caraballo. Upon receiving her drive-thru order, Holmes handed one of the meals to her daughter. Shortly after, one of the McNuggets, which was said to be "unreasonably and dangerously" hot, became stuck in the child's car seat and burned her leg, causing second-degree burns. In May 2023, a jury found that McDonald's and the franchise owners were at fault for the incident. And in July 2023, a jury was tasked with deciding how much they thought the family should receive in damages. Of the $15 million the family asked for, they were granted $800,000 by the jury. Despite receiving far less than what they requested, Holmes revealed that she was pleased with the outcome. "I honestly had no expectations, so this is more than fair for me. I'm actually just happy that they listened to Olivia's voice and the jury was able to decide a fair judgement. I'm happy with that," she said while speaking with NBC6. Holmes also expressed her hope that McDonald's will eventually offer some kind of warning for parents when it comes to hot food. "Hopefully they'll put warning signs on the nugget boxes so parents will know. And just in the future for parents to be more aware. Don't just take someone's word for it that it's warm. It could possibly be hot," Holmes 1994, a 79-year-old woman spilled extraordinarily hot McDonald's coffee on herself and suffered third-degree burns. According to Vox, "She just wanted McDonald's to pay her medical expenses, estimated at $20,000. McDonald's only offered $800, leading her to file a lawsuit." She ended up settling for less than $600,000. You Might Also Like Insanely Easy Weeknight Dinners To Try This Week 29 Insanely Delicious Vodka Cocktails
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
5 Most Expensive, Seemingly Useless Things
Today, there are few items money can't buy. With cutting-edge technology and extravagant innovations just a click away, the possibilities for spending obscene amounts of money on over-the-top purchases are endless. From fast food to a ripe banana, here are five of the most outrageously impractical purchases people have made over the years. Also for the average person, here are ways you are spending frivolously, according to Suze Orman. See Next: For You: Price: $100,000 While a four-piece order of McNuggets costs only $2.99 (or a mere 75 cents per nugget), one particular nugget sold for a jaw-dropping six-figure sum. 'In 2021, someone paid nearly $100,000 for a McDonald's Chicken McNugget that was offered on eBay with a 99-cent opening bid,' said Nora Curl, fine art and antiques expert and accredited appraiser for 'The Chicken McNugget was part of a promotional package with BTS, the Korean pop band and resembled a character from a video game called 'Among Us.'' Check Out: Price: $6.24 Million Fine art often commands sky-high prices, but when the art piece consists of a ripe banana duct-taped to a wall, its artistic merit — and price tag — becomes hard to justify. 'In 2019, the talented and witty conceptual artist, Maurizio Catalan, shook the art world by duct-taping a ripe banana to a wall during the annual Art Basel Fair in Miami,' Curl said. 'The art piece is entitled 'Comedian' and it obviously requires replacing the banana each time before it rots to mush. In 2024 a Chinese cryptocurrency founder bought the rights to 'Comedian' at a Sotheby's auction for $6.24 million.' Just DIY this masterpiece at home and save yourself over six million dollars. Price: $143 Million If you have money burning a multimillion-dollar hole in your pocket, rest assured — you can spend it on a 70-year-old car. Whether or not the vehicle runs is beside the point. 'It is almost common knowledge that a new car purchase will immediately lose value once the owner drives it off the lot,' Curl said. 'However, that is not the case for a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe, one of only two made, that sold for $143 Million at a private, invite-only auction conducted by Sotheby's in 2022.' Price: $450.3 million While Leonardo da Vinci's works already come with premium prices, the 'Salvador Mundi' shattered records with an almost unimaginable price tag–despite the paintings' unconfirmed authenticity. 'Original paintings by Old Masters and Blue Chip artists frequently hammer down at auction for 7 figures and up,' Curl said. 'The highest, to date, is the 2017 purchase of 'Salvador Mundi,' by Leonardo da Vinci, for $450.3 Million at Christie's. The kicker, though, is the authenticity of the work, actually having been painted by da Vinci, which remains in question.' Price: $12.6 million Jerseys, posers and signed balls are among the most valuable sports collectibles. While they serve little purpose beyond bragging rights, for deep-pocketed sports fanatics, a $12.6 million baseball card is money well spent. 'Collecting sports memorabilia is a sport in itself. The bigger the fan with coffers to afford Holy Grail items, the more seemingly frivolous the purchases,' Curl said. 'The highest price paid, thus far, for a sports card is $12.6 Million, in 2022, for a 1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle baseball card, graded 9.5 Mint+.' More From GOBankingRatesHow Paychecks Would Look in Each State If Trump Dropped Federal Income TaxI'm a Retired Boomer: 6 Bills I Canceled This Year That Were a Waste of Money This article originally appeared on 5 Most Expensive, Seemingly Useless Things
