McDonald's has removed smiles from Happy Meals in honor of Mental Awareness Health Week.
From May 13 to 19, McDonald's UK division changed the design of its Happy Meals to exclude the iconic smile in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Week. The division also reportedly plans to call the new version simply “The Food,” notably removing “happy” from the equation.
The temporary redesign was led by Leo Burnett UK and Ready 10, who reportedly wanted the new “meals” to reflect the current decline in mental health among young people in the UK. In a 2020 study by the country's Office for National Statistics, 48 percent of children reported feeling pressured to feel happy.
The new design will leave the iconic foods with a blank expression so that children can stick on a series of stickers that convey different emotions to suit what they are really feeling. 2.5 million of these new food boxes will be sent to over a thousand locations across the UK, allowing children to be creative with their self-expression and get in touch with their emotional side.
Louise Page, head of consumer communications and partnerships for McDonald's UK division, told TMZ that its objective was to facilitate dialogue about mental health between families.
“We know how important it is to help encourage open conversations about mental health in families,” she said. “Through this change to our Happy Meal box, we hope many more families will be encouraged to start positive conversations about children's emotions and well-being.”
In the ad, McDonald's focuses on children's perspectives and emphasizes how important it is to have conversations with young people about the importance of understanding and accepting their emotions. The company partnered with the BBC's Children in Need for the project, which resulted in an online resource encouraging communication about emotional wellbeing.
“Ensuring children are happy is one of the top priorities for all parents,” BBC Children in Need's head of impact and influence, Fozia Irfan OBE, explained in a company press release. “But allowing children to express themselves and giving them the space to express themselves when they don't feel well is equally important.”
He added: “Mental Health Awareness Week is the perfect opportunity to shine a light on the vital impact we can have on the mental wellbeing of children and young people and we are delighted to be working with McDonald's to provide the necessary support that parents and families may need. start conversations with your children.”
Narrated by soccer star Rio Ferdinand, the ad follows children openly expressing their feelings: the good, the bad, and everything in between. The father of five said he drew on his personal experience as a father to raise awareness about the issue.
“I have experienced firsthand with my own children how good communication and encouraging children to accept what they really feel can build confidence and help them manage emotions, no matter how big or small,” she said in the news release. . “Our job is to empower our children to express themselves freely and support them every step of the way so they understand that it's okay to not be happy all the time.”
Research indicates that parents are partly responsible for the pressure children feel to be happy: 74 per cent of parents in the UK report that they believe it is important to prevent their children from feeling sad. Meanwhile, two-thirds of parents said it was best for their children to encourage them to be happy.
