In Great Britain, McDonald's removed the smiles from the Happy Meal boxes. In this way, the company aims to start conversations about emotions.
This happened within the framework of the campaign “The Meal” to help families start conversations about children's emotions.
In boxes also added stickers with images of different emotions. Now children can choose them independently and stick them on the box. The company filmed a video of them reacting to being given such packaging.
The project was launched after research showed that almost half (48%) of British children feel they should be happy all the time , even if they don't want to. It was dedicated to Mental Health Awareness Week, which runs from May 13 to 19.
The company created and distributed 2.5 million special Happy Meal boxes to more than 1,400 McDonald's restaurants worldwide the country The project was developed in partnership with the BBC Children in Need programme, and a dedicated hub was created to give families access to a range of resources to encourage open conversations about emotional wellbeing with children.