#5: the lil mcdonald's happy meal toy phone
The Lil McDonald's promotion which ran in summer 2025 is a fantastic example of simulacra driven by brands which transcends generational experiences.
Baudrillard says there are 4 stages of simulacrum: reflection, perversion, absence, and pure simulacrum, where hyperreality overtakes the real.
Whereas older happy meal toys -- such as the Changeables released in 1987 -- were miniature versions of the food products themselves, this series of new toys are mostly anything but. The toy phone, in particular, stands out to me because it isn't just a facsimile of foodstuff molded in plastic, or an anthropomorphic version thereof like its older cousins from the 80s.
No, it celebrates the absence of reality itself! Kids used to have birthday parties at McDonald's, but the brand itself has tried really hard to reduce its footprint and push takeaway options rather than have people hang out at their stores. They've added kiosks and encouraged mobile ordering to order at so they can hide away all the people that work there, and now they're indoctrinating children with this new paradigm for fast food by way of a plastic toy phone.
Note that the sticker shows 6000 points, which is just enough in rewards to get another Happy Meal. The screen also never finishes loading, which users say is "an accurate representation of the app."
Not only are they manufacturing reality, they're manufacturing their (future) customers too! How's that for hyperreality?
