McDonald’s Happy Meals Were Invented In Kansas City… Sort Of

Kansas City is home to many beautiful innovations and inventions. Those include Kansas City-style Barbecue, the first shopping mall designed with vehicles in mind, The Icee, and the McDonald's Happy Meal, sort of.

It's all because Bob Bernstein of Kansas City's Bernstein-Rein Advertising watched his son eat the same cereal from the same box every morning while staring at the packaging. He realized that kids wanted something to do while eating, and the idea for McDonald's Happy Meal was born. At least that's the story Bernstein told to LJWorld.com back in 2004.

Bernstein's firm had been working with McDonald's franchises for a decade when he was challenged to create a promotion to bring kids back to the restaurant, which had become a problem in the 1970s.

Tulsa author and artist Joe Johnston, a former Cleveland adman in the early 1970s, told the Chicago Tribune, “There was a sense (among McDonald’s franchise owners) that kids didn’t want to come to McDonald’s. There was a feeling McDonald’s was losing its connection to kids." McDonald's gave him $700 to research ways to entice young families back to McDonald's, and his solution was a "Fun Meal," essentially a sack with puzzles and activities but no toys.

Paul Schrage, a retired senior executive vice president of McDonald's, told the Tribune that the burger giant stole the Happy Meal idea from Burger Chef, who gave a little gift with their meal. It was McDonald's regional ad manager in St. Louis, Dick Brams, that set the Happy Meal plan in motion. He contacted Bernstein in Kansas City, who then ran with his ideas, and the Happy Meal that we know and love was born.

The funny thing is that McDonald's Happy Meal has a complicated history. That's the point of the Chicago Tribune's 2019 article, which I'm quoting above. When Brams died, he was celebrated at  his funeral as the "father of the Happy Meal." In 2009, a touring exhibit of Happy Meal memorabilia identified him as the father of the Happy Meal. Bernstein told the Tribune that while Brams had a lot to do with the Happy Meal, his involvement came more after its invention.

Then there's Yolanda Maria Cofino, the founder of the first McDonald's in Guatemala and President of McDonald's Guatemala until 2018. She developed a small "Ronald's Menu" for kids containing a hamburger, small fries, a small Coke, and a small sundae on a tray. According to Wikipedia, she's also credited with the concept of kids' birthday celebrations at McDonald's.

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Brams, Bernstein, Johnston, and Corfino contributed to the Happy Meal. The fast food giant acknowledged Brams, Bernstein, and Corfino for making the Happy Meal what it is today at different times in their association with the fast food company.

Yet, and maybe I'm a little biased, I think it's Bernstein, the Kansascitian, who put the Happy Meal in a box with a toy that should get the credit for Happy Meals, at least in America because that made it iconic.