, Columnist
McDonald’s Pokemon Frenzy Shows the Collecting Boom’s Dark Side
McDonald’s recent “Happy Set” promotion in Japan quickly devolved into scalping. There’s no easy solution.
Promotion backlash in Japan shows how social media and scalpers interconnect.
Photo: Bloomberg
In Japan, they don’t call it a Happy Meal. The McDonald’s option with a toy thrown in is known as a Happy Set. But that’s where the differences end: Kids and adults on both sides of the Pacific love them — though sometimes for the wrong reasons.
McDonald’s Holdings Co. Japan, which operates the Golden Arches in its third-largest market, is finding this out to its peril. After a Pokemon trading card promotion went disastrously wrong, it’s been rebuked by the Consumer Affairs Agency and is rethinking future campaigns.