Why do Pirate & Princess Happy Meals make McDonald’s managers want to walk the plank?

Jim Hill

17 years ago

Have you heard about these Disney Princess & Pirates of the Caribbean -themed Happy Meals that McDonald’s is selling now through April 10th?

Given that this is the first time that Mickey Mouse & Mickey Dee have joined forces since these two mega-corporations decided to end their 10-year, $100 million cross-promotional pact back in the Summer of 2006 … I thought that it might be interesting to find out how this particular promotion (Which is actually a twofer. Given that this four-week-long Happy Meal campaign is supposed to help get the word about the “Year of a Million Dreams” as well as WDW’s Pirate & Princess Party hard-ticket event) has been going.

Which is why I decided to phone a friend-of-a-friend yesterday. No, I can’t tell you this gentleman’s name. Mostly because I don’t want McDonald’s Corporate coming down on him like a ton of bricks. But what I can tell you is that this guy rides herd on several restaurants in the Boston area. To be specific, the McDonald’s that he’s personally in charge of are located in several of Massachusetts’ more affluent communities.

Anyway … When I asked this gent how this most recent Disney-related promotion is going, he said that ” … it’s already been a huge pain-in-the-ass.”

So what exactly is the problem here? It’s not the Happy Meals or the toys themselves that are giving this guy (more importantly, the staff at his restaurants) agita.

In fact, given that it’s been more than a year and a half since McDonald’s last had a Disney-related promotion, the customers (so far) have been responding strongly to this particular campaign. With little boys eager to get their hands on the “Pirates of the Caribbean” toys …

Which include a wind-up chattering skull …

… a miniature pirate ship that fires paper disks …

… as well as a plastic replica of Captain Jack Sparrow’s infamous broken compass.

And — from what this guy told me — little girls are equally eager to get their hands on those Disney Princess-themed Happy Meal toys …

Which include a Sleeping Beauty-style crown …

… a Snow White hand mirror

… as well as a pair of Cinderella going-to-the-ball gloves.

So if the kids are responding enthusiastically to this new Disney-themed Happy Meal campaign, where does the pain-in-the-ass part come in? As this McDonald’s management-type explained it to me, it’s the parents — to be specific, the mothers — who are causing all of the problems.

“For this four-week-long Disney Happy Meal campaign, the crew members who work the counter have been given a very specific script to follow. So that — if a customer asks for a Happy Meal — the crew member is then supposed to say in response ‘Do you want a Pirate toy or a Princess toy with your meal?’

But once it gets busy, people start to get sloppy. And invariably someone will slip up and accidentally ask a customer if they want a little boy toy or a little girl toy. And that’s all it takes to set some of these mothers off. They then begin to lecture our counter staff about gender identification and how dare we stereotype their child. Some of these women will go on for 5 minutes or more about how their daughter can be a pirate if she wants to be. All this fuss and noise over a crummy piece of plastic.

It seems like every night, right in the middle of the dinner rush, we get one of these ladies. That’s why I say that this Happy Meal campaign is a pain in my ass. As far as I’m concerned, April 10th can’t get here fast enough.”

To be fair, it isn’t just McDonald’s that has to concern itself with gender-related issues and stereotypes these days. Just last week, WDW management reportedly took a look at the new promotional art that the resort’s marketing team had created for “Mickey’s Pirate & Princess Party” …

… and they allegedly decided that this image was … Well, a little too Snow White. Which is why they then supposedly had this “Pirates & Princess” promotional art retooled so that a little black Belle could now join Mickey, Minnie and Captain Hook at the party.

Now I know that some of you might think that WDW’s marketing department only made this change because they were trying to be PC. But me personally? I think that there’s probably a far more cold-blooded reason that Disney decided to change out the little girl in this ad.

I mean, let’s remember that the Mouse has been having a very tough time moving tickets to this after-hours event at the Magic Kingdom. So could it be that — by adding a cute little African American to this piece of promotional art — Mickey just hopes that they’ll be able to persuade a few more black WDW visitors to pony up the $51.07-per-person admission fee for “Mickey’s Pirate & Princess Party” ?

Because — at this point, particularly when it comes to this next set of after-hours events — it’s crucial that Disney sell at least 10,000 tickets to each & every “Mickey’s Pirate & Prince Party.” Otherwise this new hard ticket won’t be able to cover its costs. Which would then most likely force Magic Kingdom management to make “Pirate & Princess” walk the plank.

But what about you folks? Are you amused to hear that there are mothers out there who begin lecturing McDonald’s employees on gender indentification if they’re asked “Do you want a little boy toy or a little girl toy with your Happy Meal?” Or does it bother you that we live in such hyper-sensitive times that people would actually question why the Walt Disney World Resort would take a little white girl out of their “Mickey’s Pirate & Princess Party” promotional art and then replace her with a little black girl?

Your thoughts?