McDonald’s honors its lucrative merchandising past with a new set of collectible cups that outshine McDonald’s cup icons like Grimace, Hello Kitty and Shrek. They’re made of plastic instead of glass, but this time they won’t release heavy metals into your bloodstream either.
The fast food chain announced the latest Happy Meal prizes last week and will be giving them away starting August 13. There are a total of six collectible cups, each with motifs based on characters and themes from previous Happy Meals:
- Coca Cola
- Beanie Babies
- Hello Kitty And Peanuts
- Barbie and Hot Wheels
- Shrek, Jurassic Park And Minions
- The Grimace glass, the boo buckets and the funny French fry friends
Collectible cups have a long history when it comes to McDonald’s Happy Meal giveaways, but none is more notorious than the Shrek recall of 2010The company had to print 12 million glass cups with advertising for Shrek Forever After after it was discovered that the images of the ogre and his friends painted on them contained traces of cadmium. The new Shrek cup will not have this problem, although it is not yet clear how many microplastic particles are contained in each drink made from this soda.
Luckily, the cups are more for display and I’m as much a fan of colorful, commercial nostalgia as anyone. Less fortunately, McDonald’s Happy Meals are more expensive than ever. A recent study claimed that the prices of some items, from McGriddles to Big Macs, had increased by over 40 percent since the pandemicTo counteract the perception that its “value” menu is overpriced, the company has launched a $5 meal in the summer.
We will see if the collectible cup campaign can recall the excitement that emerged in 2021 when Happy Meals came briefly with Pokémon special edition cards. This is a collector’s mug that I would stuff myself with McNuggets for.
