1. C.S. Lewis and his Deeper Magic
In the commercial you would see the Hot Wheels Happy Meal toys speeding on tables as if they were real race cars with their vibrant light up windows which were shown in the dark as well to give the toy a more appealing look. By having the toy car speed on the table, a child can imagine themselves what it would be like to play with the car or even be in the driver's seat; the lights compliment the car to give it a different, more vibrant look which children are attracted to. After watching that commercial, I felt "hungry" all of a sudden. The only reason I craved McDonald's was for the Hot Wheels toy included with the Happy Meal. They succeeded . If one would have gone to McDonald's at the time, one could see the display these cars were in. In it, it showcased every car available in an appealing fashion which would cultivate most male children. McDonald's has been using toys to attract their young customers for many years. In fact, according to an article on The Huffington Post, The Federal Trade Commission has reported that McDonald's is by far in the lead, spending $360 million in 2006 only on toys to market children's Happy Meals. The author of the article, Michael F. Jacobson, states that "McDonald's is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, marketers of food to children." When it came to fast-food restaurants, I wasn't the only one who had the toy mentality. I knew kids who wanted to eat out and choose a specific fast-food chain restaurant to eat at simply because of the toy they had to offer. Or when my siblings and I had the choice of which fast-food restaurant to eat at we would decide not by who had the best tasting chicken nuggets or cheeseburger and fries. Instead, we would decide by the toy the restaurant had to offer with a kid's meal. There were even times when we decided on a specific location based on the playground they had in or outside of the restaurant.