1982 McDonald’s Happy Meal Ad Featuring “Little Golden Books”
It was a couple of doomkick.com posts (McDonald’s Happy Meal Super Looney Tunes – 1991 and McDonald’s Star Trek Happy Meal – 1979) that turned my mind to the Happy Meal this morning. After reading the Wikipedia entry on the Happy Meal I figured it might be fun to see if there are any old newspaper ads. Yep.
July 16, 1982. The Milwaukee Sentinel brings us this Happy Meal ad that’s a fantastic snapshot of the children’s entertainment market in the early eighties. You see, at the time this ad ran it was more than just McDonald’s and Little Golden Books publisher Western behind the promotion. Mattel, having purchased Western in 1979, was somewhere in all of this. A tiny world! Mattel was out of the Little Golden Books universe shortly after this ad ran; see the Western Publishing Wikipedia entry for more on the circumstances surrounding Little Golden Books at the time this ad was new.
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That’s a pretty cool Happy Meal that I don’t remember. I always liked Little Golden Books. It’s weird that the news was making a big deal about McDonald’s offering books in their Happy Meals just last week as it obviously isn’t anything new. It may not be what they usually offer but it’s obviously been done before.