Pokémon cards in the Happy Meal: boom of wasted food and resale in the black market, McDonald’s forced to apologies

In Japan one of the most anticipated initiatives of McDonald’s has turned into a media boomerang and beyond. The so -called “Pokémon Happy Meal”, designed for children and families, promised a collectible paper in edition limited to those who bought the famous meal. Too bad that, within a few hours, there was no more talk about smiles and gadgets, but of food waste and speculative resale.

Running to forgotten cards and meals

The initiative, scheduled for several days, lasted less than 24 hours. The collectors – often adults – attacked the restaurants by buying dozens of menus only to obtain the cards, leaving behind him heaps of burgers and chips still packaged. The images of the abandoned bags on the sidewalks have gone around the web, becoming the symbol of a paradox: the hunt for a piece of plastic or cardboard made the value of the food invisible.

From fast food to black market

On platforms such as eBay, the cards sold together with a menu of approximately $ 3.50 have been put on sale in figures up to ten times higher. A parallel market that has transformed an advertising stunt into a quick gain occasion for speculators. The promotion, instead of strengthening the image of McDonald’s, attracted huge criticisms on the brand due to compulsive collecting and food waste.

The apologies of McDonald’s Japan

Overly from the controversy, the company has released a press release admitting a bad management of the campaign. He has announced new rules: purchases limits, rigid checks on orders and collaboration with online platforms to curb the resale. But the damage had already been done and two circumstance phrases will be enough to delete the photos of the meals left to rot.

A lesson ignored

It is not even the first episode: only a few months ago another promotion with special gadgets had unleashed similar chaos. It is therefore evident that the problem is not the “too enthusiastic” audience, but a short -sighted marketing, unable to predict the side effects.

In a country known by order and penalty, seeing wasted food because of a toy should be an alarm bell. The message that passes is clear: between a sandwich and a collector paper, the sandwich can end up directly in the garbage in spite of those who die of hunger every day.

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