McDonald's is a world-wide fast-food chain known primarily for hamburgers. It has offered a number of Happy Meal toys for kids and other premiums based on Muppet productions such as The Great Muppet Caper, Muppet Babies, Fraggle Rock, Dinosaurs, Muppet Treasure Island and Chicken Dance Elmo.
McDonald's is the title sponsor of the McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade, which has featured Bear in the Big Blue House, Muppet and Sesame Street balloons over the years. McDonald's was also one of the corporate sponsors for Sesame Street for several seasons.
In 1990, McDonald's financed the Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue TV special that aired simultaneously on NBC, CBS and ABC, and included Baby Kermit, Baby Piggy and Baby Gonzo among other cartoon characters. The same year, McDonald's sponsored a simulcast of the dubbed special in Germany.
In 2003, a McDonald's commercial made for European countries used a toy Kermit puppet by Applause to promote the Muppets 25th Anniversary Happy Meal plush.
McDonald's Canada is a sponsor of Waste Reduction Week, which features Sesame Street characters like Oscar the Grouch.
References
- The Sesame Street Cookbook features a page of Twiddlebug riddles which spoofs the McDonald's franchise as "McTwiddle's." The riddles go on to include a real recipe for making McTwiddle burgers.
- In Episode 1682 of Sesame Street, an annoyed Big Bird complains that he's been waiting too long for his Birdseed McMuffin at Hooper's Store.
- In Miss Piggy's Rules, Miss Piggy instructs the readers that a bad first date would be to "get the Happy Meal in the drive-thru line at that little Scottish place." Further along in the book, in the section "What You Say vs. What Your Really Mean," she uses the example of saying, "I don't care where we go, as long as we're together" means, "Whaddaya mean, we're going to MacDonald's (sic)?"
- Kermit and Miss Piggy use a "drive-thru" at McEats in a The Muppets comic strip dated October 24, 1982.
- In the Dinosaurs episode "Into the Woods," a Happy Meal is twice mentioned as the reward for a toddler's completion of their solo wilderness ritual.
- The Flintstones featured a restaurant called "Rock Donalds".
- In the Farscape episode "Durka Returns," Crichton, referencing Durka's mental cleansing, says that "nobody knows what a hundred years of Happy Meals have done to him."
Premiums
- For a list of promotions, Happy Meals, and other marketing tools for Henson feature films and Television series, see Category:McDonald's.