McDonald's said no to Disney. Burger King said yes. And a 90s fast food war was born.
Before Happy Meal toys and Disney-themed cups became background noise, a $40 million promotion disaster, a Splash Mountain delay, and a scrappy competitor nearly changed the entire landscape of Disney marketing. This is the story of how two burger giants fought for the right to put a mouse in your kid's meal — and how that rivalry shaped the toys, the nostalgia, and the partnerships we still see today.
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00:00 --> 17:32 McDonald's said no to Disney right at the beginning of the Disney Decade, when the company was about to release the most successful run of animated movies it ever had. They didn't know McDonald's had been burned by a couple of Disney promotions and wanted out. That's when their scrappy competitor Burger King picked up the Disney collabs and basically said yes to everything. McDonald's lost out big time, and they wouldn't let that happen again. Hey, this is Synergy Loves Company, where we explore how Disney connects to everything. I'm Eric, and today we're taking a look at Disney and McDonald's. The innovators in their fields, at the top of their own industries, they seem destined to work with each other, but it wasn't always going to be seamless. Let's go back, back to the beginning, and see where the destined collab gets started. It's 1918. That's probably further back than you thought it would go. But in 1918, a 15-year-old kid from just outside Chicago lies about his age so he can drive ambulances for the Red Cross during the war, World War I. He gets shipped out to Connecticut for training, and in that same unit is another kid, a little bit older, but also from Chicago, who lied about his age to get in too. Those two were Ray Kroc And Walt Disney. They actually meet here, but they aren't really close or anything. But then after the war, they both move out to California to pursue their careers and their dreams. And Walt, we know, makes a super successful animation studio. And Ray found out about a little hamburger stand started by the McDonald's brothers that he decides to take over and spread all over the country by franchising. In 1954, Ray Kroc hears that Walt is building something called Disneyland out in Anaheim, so he writes Walt a letter. It's kind of like, hey, remember me from the Red Cross? But, you know, they weren't super close, so he's kind of nervous too. He opens with, I feel somewhat presumptuous asking you in this way, but the letter pitches the idea of putting a McDonald's inside this new park. Walt writes back, he's polite about it, and he says he'll pass it along to someone who's in charge of concessions. And it never really makes it to who it needs to go to, and the whole thing just kind of dies out. But like, McDonald's at this point wasn't the powerhouse we know today. It was relatively small. Disney went for the bigger concession partners like Stouffer's and Carnation. In fact, when Ray Kroc wrote the letter, he didn't even have his own franchised location yet. April of 1955, Ray Kroc opens his first McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois, just a few months before Walt opens Disneyland. But Ray Kroc's first McDonald's location, if he had it his original way, could have been in Disneyland. McDonald's doesn't catch that Disney break, but it keeps growing into this global machine. Over 10 locations by the late '80s. Ray Kroc dies in 1984, the same year that Michael Eisner takes over Walt Disney Productions, and both these global companies are in new eras, and they are finally ready to work together. In 1987, the deals get a little more serious with Happy Meal toys, longer-term contracts. Come on, 1987 is when we got those iconic Cinderella mice ornaments. Remember those? You probably had a Gus Gus or a Jacques on your tree. McDonald's and Disney go beyond Happy Meal promotions and little giveaways when Disneyland starts building Splash Mountain and McDonald's decides to collaborate on that. In early 1989, they have this game called Splash for Cash, where you'd buy a drink, you'd peel a little sticker off of it, and maybe win a $25 prize. McDonald's is advertising this ride. Everyone's getting excited, booking these Disneyland vacations. They wanna ride Splash Mountain. But these promotions are planned months in advance, and when the construction delays hit Splash Mountain, the scheduled opening gets pushed back. McDonald's has already spent all this money, this marketing money, hyping up the ride that isn't even open yet, and that kind of sticks with McDonald's. Splash Mountain does finally open in July of 1989, but it's 6 months too late, and McDonald's isn't thrilled. But the relationship doesn't die right away. There's still The Little Mermaid Happy Meal and The Rescuers Down Under tie-in coming up the pipeline. Remember, these things are planned way in advance, which seems fine because those movies actually do well and kids want those toys. So it works. But then there's another one of those games in 1990 for Dick Tracy called Dick Tracy Crime Stoppers. Now Dick Tracy for Disney was supposed to be this big blockbuster movie, big business at the theaters. It was going to be Disney's answer to Batman. And McDonald's puts real weight behind it. They spent around $40 million on this Crime Stoppers game tie-in. But Dick Tracy doesn't do so good. It underperforms big time. promotion turns into a big mess. By 1991, McDonald's trust in Disney is gone. McDonald's is the biggest fast food chain on Earth, and that size gives them the confidence to push back on Disney. The tables have turned big time since Ray Kroc was first writing that letter to Walt. Disney offers McDonald's the promotion on Beauty and the Beast and The Rocketeer, but McDonald's rejects it, but Disney shops those movies around and hooks a deal with Pizza Hut. For Beauty and the Beast, they make these rubbery plastic puppets. They're like the ones that Pizza Hut made for Don Bluth's Land Before Time in 1988. And for The Rocketeer, the Hut puts out a kids pack that comes with a commemorative cup that looks like the Rocketeer's helmet and this like glider toy. But Pizza Hut kind of feels like the minor leagues for fast food tie-ins because in the early '90s, Pizza Hut isn't really fast food. At this point, McDonald's had been refining the Happy Meal experience for the past decade and a half. You put a really cool toy in the meal, put a commercial on TV during Saturday morning cartoons or just after school, and kids bug their parents to go to McDonald's. Every fast food restaurant emulated this. Pizza Hut, though, was a bigger ask for kids. It wasn't a quick grab-and-go drive-through experience. It was more like a place you went and sat down with the family for a special occasion, like to celebrate a whole month of reading books. So Pizza Hut isn't exactly what Disney is looking for, and all those drive-through fast food places have been trying to catch McDonald's Happy Meal with some sort of copycat kids meal. Burger King's been trailing McDonald's by thousands of locations for years at this point, but they have been gaining ground as the number 2 fast food burger competitor. So when Disney comes calling with ideas, Burger King just says yes. Yes to whatever Disney wants. Because this partnership is a shot at closing that gap with McDonald's. Disney offers them the star power that McDonald's didn't need. Instead of locking into one giant contract, Disney and Burger King do this on a case-by-case basis. Aladdin gets a kids club meal. The Nightmare Before Christmas gets a watch promotion. These things are so cool. There's kids meal promos for re-releases like Pinocchio. They even do big one for Walt Disney World's 20th anniversary. Let's take a minute to talk about the switch that happens around 1991 in the Disney Company while all this is going down. Beauty and the Beast gets real acclaim from audiences and critics, and it gets that Best Picture Oscar nomination. Michael Eisner's dream for the Disney Decade actually has real momentum. When he made the Disney Decade announcement in 1989, when they were still with McDonald's, it was more of this like lofty idea. Who knew if it was actually going to At the time, Disney seemed to be dragging their end of the promotions, but in the early '90s, they're bolstering up Burger King with their movie momentum. Now, the truth is McDonald's actually never stopped making Disney Happy Meals completely. Burger King was on that one promotion at a time deal, and McDonald's picked up some too at this time, like the McDonald's Happy Meal promotion for EPCOT '94. But because Burger King was open to giving Disney whatever they wanted, they ended up with the big new heavy-hitter animated movies and iconic promotions like the Disney Classics Glasses Collection. Like that Aladdin promotion in 1992. Burger King reportedly spends $25 million on it and it sells 20 million character toys, and it brings them that much closer to catching McDonald's market share. Families have a choice. They can get a burger or nuggets from McDonald's or Burger King. Parents are often choosing because their kid wants that toy. And once they're in the building, they're buying the kid's meal, of course, but they're also buying something for themselves too. And this whole Happy Meal kids meal thing is built on a collection. You gotta collect them all. So you gotta go back each week to get the next toy in the set. 1994 is when this whole thing really takes off. The Lion King tie-in sells 15 million toys in the first 2 weeks alone, and Burger King reports a 19% jump in customer traffic that entire summer. The kids want the whole set and they keep their families coming back. 1995 keeps the streak going. Pocahontas lands at Burger King and so does Toy Story, and it's big business too. An estimated $45 million spent and 35 million toys sold. Not to mention all the burgers and fries that came with those toys. Burger King is on a roll here, no question, and it gets noticed. McDonald's, still the industry leader, has nearly twice as many locations worldwide to throw into the mix if they want to entice Disney back. In 1996, McDonald's gets James and the Giant Peach. They do the live-action 101 Dalmatians remix. This one's cool. They did 101 different toys. That's a lot of trips to collect them all. Burger King actually turned both of these deals down. They weren't the big animated event release movies, and they didn't want to take the risk of these smaller projects. But it ended up being a worse risk by not taking them, because McDonald's crept right in. With twice the locations worldwide, they had twice the promotional reach. And in '96, Disney decides that McDonald's reach is what they want. They sign a 10-year exclusive deal with McDonald's. And just like that, Burger King's 5-year run on top of the kids meal game with Disney done. They never actually locked Disney down. And for McDonald's, this time they're making sure the deal goes both ways. Disney gets the promotions at McDonald's locations, and McDonald's gets locations on Disney property. In '97, McDonald's opens a location at Downtown Disney in Florida. Now it's what we call Disney Springs. In '98, McDonald's opens another Walt Disney World location just down the street from the All-Star Resorts. It's the big one with all the crazy characters on it. Then the Golden Arches get into the parks themselves. When Disney opens Animal Kingdom in 1998, McDonald's get an entire section of the park, Dinoland USA. McDonald's sponsors the ride Countdown to Extinction. They even put in this little Easter egg where the chemical compounds of ketchup, mustard, and mayo are on tubes and pipes in the queue area. And they also get to run a restaurant right there in the land, Restaurantosaurus. Well, When McDonald's and Disney are planning Dinoland, they actually team up together to secure the funding for Sue, the most complete T-Rex fossil ever to be preserved, and they make sure that it gets a place to stay at Chicago's Field Museum. They also do get a cast of Sue to put in their Dinoland in the park too. McDonald's and Disney at this point look like they just became best friends. Fries stands start popping up all over Walt Disney World. Frontierland gets Frontierland fries. Disneyland gets the Village Fry Shop. There's Fairfax Fries at Hollywood Studios, and over by Canada in Epcot, there's another fry stand. Disneyland and California Adventure get fry stands too. But that's just the Disney Parks side of things. What actually stuck with people was the Happy Meal toys. This decade produces some of the most collected Happy Meal toys ever. There's a 1996 Masterpiece Collection trivia game, the kind of scratch-off contest that, you know, they probably wouldn't have done before because of all those other contests. It was so popular that it drove people to call their local libraries with Disney trivia questions, just trying to figure out the answer. There were the 100 Years of Magic figures. There's the Happy Meal toys for Hercules, Mulan, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo. Hey, now's a good time to let me know what was the best Happy Meal toy, Kids Club meal toy from Disney that got you going back each week. What was your favorite toy that you were chasing, trying to look for? Let me know down in the comments. At this point, Burger King had lost Disney, but they don't just fold up and disappear. They partner with Universal, Disney's theme park rival, for Jurassic Park II: The Lost World. And then a few years after that, they land a deal with DreamWorks Animation. They kind of find a kindred spirit in DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, who also has an axe to grind with Disney. In 2009, Burger King opens their own burger bar concept at Universal Studios CityWalk. It did just close in 2026. And for Disney and McDonald's, their 10-year run was a long one for a partnership. And by the time that it runs out in 2006, the world has changed a little bit. Books and documentaries like Super Size Me and Fast Food Nation shift the entire national conversation about fast food and marketing to kids. And this time it's Disney stepping back from the deal, citing health concerns about pairing its family-friendly brand with a burger chain in the middle of— this whole unhealthy conversation. It's not a permanent breakup though, it's just a scaling back. The fry stands in the parks disappear, but the McDonald's restaurants still operated on Walt Disney World property. In 2018, the 2 companies get back together, just smaller this time. It's a non-exclusive deal that included The Incredibles 2 toys. No 10-year contract, no royalty numbers in the hundreds of millions, just a quieter version of the same relationship. And Disney and McDonald's have continued to align with most of their major releases. That McDonald's inside Disney property over by the All-Stars just got remodeled not too long ago to become the world's first net-zero energy McDonald's. Solar panels, eco-friendly everything. It's not going anywhere. And you can probably get a Happy Meal promoting Disney's latest film from its drive-through on your next trip through Disney property. But that was what it was all about. We loved getting those little toys with our meals. And if you grew up in the '90s, your Disney memories came wrapped in that Burger King box just as often as a Happy Meal. Most people though don't even remember which company had which movie. We just wanted those toys, which is exactly how they got us hyped up for the movies so we would then go buy more burgers. If you love this video where we got into the corporate sponsorship side of things, I have an ongoing series over on Patreon that digs into the original sponsors of Disneyland. What they sponsored, how they've connected to Disney over the years, and what they're up to now. You can support the show and go check it out right now. There's a link down in the description. Next time we're getting into even more Disney Parks corporate sponsorships and how some of those deals ended up giving us stuff we now think of as icons of pop culture, both inside and outside the Disney Parks. Are you subscribed? Maybe right now is a good time to fix that so you don't miss that video. Don't forget to Tell all your Disney friends about this show. And remember to keep discovering the magic in everything.