McDonald’s Japan apologized after the fiasco of a marketing campaign offering Pokémon cards in limited edition with the purchase of “Happy Meals” meals (“Happy”) causing long queues and indignation on social networks about food waste.
In Japan, the famous “pocket monsters” cards are a real phenomenon in both children and certain adults.
Launched on Friday, the campaign of the fast food chain quickly slipped with customers rushing to buy meals quantities only in order to resell cards at a higher price on online business sites.
Social networks have also been flooded with negative comments concerning long queues in McDonald’s restaurants, with unconcetic photos showing plastic bags filled with unused burgers and fries.
Some maliciously evoking a campaign “Unhappy Meals” (“unhappy feast”) in opposition to the famous “Happy Meal” (“Joyeux Festin”)
“I couldn’t buy a happy feast for my daughter because of these people,” said a user on X.
“I’m sure there are Adult Pokémon admirers who really want the cards, but these resellers are really embarrassing,” complains another.
“They go (in restaurants) to collect them, then throw food … for what profit?”, Regrets another.
Similar problems have already affected other McDonald’s campaigns in the past, including collaborations with manga series like “Chikawa”.
By announcing this last marketing campaign, the company had insisted that each person could buy a maximum of five meals.
In a statement on Monday, McDonald’s acknowledged that there had been certain cases of “massive purchases by customers, motivated by resale” which led “to the waste of our food”.
The group added that it sought to “introduce a stricter limit” on future operations of this type.
“Any attempt to purchase beyond the authorized limit, to make the tail several times or to behave intimidatingly towards our staff” will result in a refusal of sale, “said the company.
The American fast food giant has also promised to ask online commerce sites to take more effective measures against the abusive resale of these Pokémon cards.