McDonald’s executives have undoubtedly been telling themselves that the reactions to the new mascot Happy as “creepy” are just a bunch of cynical adults on the Internet and surely children, the target demographic, would react differently. They would turn to their mother and say, “Mother, this mascot makes me want a Happy Meal — one with carrot sticks and apple slices as a healthier alternative to french fries. That would make me ever so happy, mother.”
Grub Street got a bunch of kids together to see how they would really react to the new mascot, and their reactions are pretty much what you’d expect. “What the heck is that?” one girl responds upon seeing Happy for the first time, which is basically a cleaned-up version of our initial reaction. “Creepy” and “weird” are two words that get thrown around a lot by the kids, which, again, doesn’t really come as a surprise. Our favorite response is probably, “It’s like a little box that’s alive that’s saying, ‘Oh finally, I found a human that I can eat.'” The kids also offer up some ways of fixing Happy, because, as one kid puts it, “People are going to make a joke out of it and it’s going to totally ruin their business.” That may be a bit drastic, but the verdict appears to be in on Happy (if it wasn’t already). Check out the video for yourself above, as a description can only go so far.