McDonald’s Pokémon Promo Ends With Grown Men Brawling, Pigeons Feast

Not all McDonald’s promotions are created equal.

This week, the fast food chain hit the jackpot in Japan with the help of colorful trading cards emblazoned with Pikachu the lightning rat, the source of much millennial nostalgia.

The fast food chain announced that from August 9 to 11, customers could snag an exclusive pack of Pokémon cards with every Happy Meal purchase. Each set was priced at roughly 500 yen, or $3.50, with a five-meal-per-person limit.

But before the first day was over, McDonald’s pulled the plug on the promotion. The deal had morphed into a chaotic sprint for superfans and scalpers alike.

In a press release on August 11, McDonald’s confirmed that the campaign had resulted in customers buying large quantities of the meals for resale, which led to congestion in stores and food waste.

“McDonald’s does not tolerate the purchase of Happy Meals for the purpose of resale, or the abandonment or disposal of food,” the release said, adding that it would impose stricter purchase limits in the future.

McDonald’s did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

From meltdowns to pigeons on fries

Soon after the promo launched on August 9, social media feeds were filled with surreal scenes: bags of Happy Meals abandoned in stores, piled outside outlets, or stuffed into bike baskets.

Buyers were snapping up multiple Happy Meals for the exclusive cards, often ditching the food.

Kiko Ochoa-Beovides and Madison Hodges told Business Insider they snapped up around 20 Happy Meals to collect the toy sets and Pokémon cards.

They hadn’t expected to find any. On Sunday, the pair stopped by a McDonald’s on the Yokosuka Fleet base, on the outskirts of Tokyo, and were surprised to find cards in stock.

“We called everywhere and they were completely sold out,” said Ochoa-Beovides, 22, an American who moved to Yokosuka in May.

Hodges, 21, who moved to Japan last August, added: “As soon as they told us they had them in stock, we went right over.”

They bought 15 meals on their first trip, then returned two hours later for another 10. They ended up with so much food that they drove around handing out free Happy Meals to make sure nothing went to waste.

They told Business Insider that the restaurant let them place unlimited orders.

Others weren’t as charitable. A video posted on Saturday — the first day of the promo — showed two people dumping multiple bags of Happy Meals straight into the trash.

Some customers took to social media to gripe about snaking queues and hourlong waits.

“There was a huge line, far surpassing the time of Chiikawa,” X user “hinoko” wrote on X on Saturday, referring to McDonald’s Japan’s tie-in with the popular rabbit-like anime character.

“I waited for nearly an hour, with people in line getting irritated,” they wrote.

In some cases, the frustration reached a boiling point. At one outlet in Japan, two men — one of them juggling armfuls of McDonald’s bags — got into a heated argument. A video of the altercation, posted on Saturday, went viral on TikTok, racking up about 11 million views by Thursday.

The chaos also spilled into the online resale sphere. Within hours, the Pokémon cards — and even the untouched meals — were listed on resale sites for as much as 2,000 yen, nearly four times the original price.

On Thursday, Business Insider saw dozens of Pokémon card listings on Mercari, Japan’s largest online resale marketplace, with some priced as high as 3,000 yen.

The frenzy moved from human hands to pigeon beaks. A viral post on Sunday showed pigeons on the usually impeccable streets of Shibuya pecking at food scraps on the pavement next to crumpled McDonald’s bags.

“Early morning chaos in Shibuya. McDonald’s burgers and fries were scattered on the streets, turning into a feast for pigeons,” the post on X read.

A home run collaboration

Globally, McDonald’s is no stranger to high-profile brand collaborations. Some promotions, like their BTS meals and Hello Kitty giveaways, have similarly resulted in massive crowds and a shortage of collectible items.

In its most recent earnings call, CFO Ian Frederick Borden said McDonald’s partnership with “A Minecraft Movie,” which was held in more than 100 markets, had an “incredibly strong” response from consumers. Most of its Minecraft collectibles sold out ahead of the intended promotion window.

Kieran Gibb, the founder of Monogic, a Hong Kong-based food and beverage marketing company, called the McDonald’s Pokémon Happy Meal a “home run collaboration.” He said it drew in customers of all ages, from children to nostalgic adult collectors.

Frenzy is an effect that is “incredibly hard to achieve,” said Gibb.

“McDonald’s has tapped into a brand with super fandom at a period in time where collectability is at its sheer peak,” Gibb added.

Pokémon has had generations of fans since its debut in the late 1990s, said Ryan Hoge, the president of Professional Sports Authenticator, a trading card grading company.

“Now, those original fans are in their 30s and 40s, have disposable income, and are sharing their fandom with their children,” Hoge said. “It’s become a generational hobby and connection point.”

The promotion was launched shortly after McDonald’s reported strong second-quarter results. Same-store sales in its international developmental licensed markets segment grew by more than 5.5%, led by Japan.

Tapping into a booming collectible market

Trading cards — and the collectibles industry at large — are red-hot now.

Adam Goulston, Japan’s strategic advisor for the Singapore-based public relations and marketing agency Ellerton & Co., told Business Insider that the real target of the Happy Meals trading cards was collectors and resellers, for whom the meals were a “very cheap way to acquire limited-edition inventory for resale.”

Buying and selling trading cards is made easy by platforms like Mercari in Japan and eBay outside Japan, Goulston said.

The McDonald’s Pikachu card will hold value because of collectors who chase specific characters, Hoge said. He said Pikachu is arguably one of the most popular Pokémon card characters of all time.

There’s also a sprawling industry to hold up the resale value of these cards — and big money in it.

Some Pokémon cards have been sold for millions. In 2022, the YouTuber Logan Paul clinched a Guinness World Record for the most expensive Pokémon card sold in a private auction, having paid $5,275,000 for his PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator card.

Collectibles of all sorts are also flying off the shelves. A consumer group called “kidults” — who go all in on board games, figurines, and plush toys like Labubu — is fueling the growth of the toy sector.

Madness might leave a ‘sour taste’ for McDonald’s, brand experts say

The Pokémon Happy Meal frenzy could still lead to trouble for McDonald’s. The Japanese care about social etiquette and reducing food waste — and this isn’t a good look.

Gibb from Monogic said the chaos may have left “a sour taste” in the mouths of its Japanese consumer base.

However, Guy Llewelyn, a professor at EHL Hospitality Business School in Singapore, said the collaboration was a net positive for McDonald’s.

“The equity gained from the promotion will outweigh the short-lived surge of negative press on wasted food and long lines,” Llewelyn said. “Customers see the collaboration as a short-lived, isolated event, and not a systemic failing of the brand.”