KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDAF) – A Kansas City, Missouri, advertising agency celebrated its 60th anniversary on Nov. 1.
Bernstein Rein has had major clients over the years, including Walmart and Blockbuster. However, it's best known for creating something a billion parents now purchase each year: The McDonald's Happy Meal.
Bob Bernstein said Kansas City's nine McDonald's franchises were struggling somewhat when his agency first landed them as a client in 1967.
"The first thing was to create children's marketing because McDonald's, in my mind, I thought it really appealed to children," the 86-year-old recalled, sitting in his Kansas City office filled with nostalgic McDonald's items.
So, he started creating premium promotions. His first was a styrofoam plane dubbed the "Flying Hamburger" featuring Ronald McDonald in 1968. In 1970, he created the Happy Cup, McDonald's first national promotion, followed by the Happy Plate, Happy Lid and Sippy Dipper Straw.
Some creations, like the pencil puppet erasers, never really took off, but he has his son Steve, the current CEO of Bernstein Rein, partly to thank for the Happy Meal -- a McDonald's menu staple for 45 years.
"I would read the same cereal box over and over again, and it was true, he was frustrated with me. He'd say, 'Don't you have something better to read,'" Steve Bernstein remembered from his childhood.
"I thought he wanted something to do. He's a bright kid. Why wouldn't other kids want to do the same? They want to have something to do while they are eating," Bob Bernstein explained.
That thought inspired the Happy Meal, which launched in Kansas City and three other test markets in 1977.
Bob Bernstein said McDonald's wasn't originally sold on the concept. He still has eight of the nine original Happy Meal boxes created in his office.
"We took illustrators and said, 'Look, take a theme, do a theme, but do 10 items on each one to make sure that the kids have plenty to do,'" he said.
Original Happy Meals were sold nationwide beginning in 1979 and had a small Cracker Jack box-type toy. Television ads told customers Happy Meals would only be available for a limited time.
"When I came up with the idea, I never dreamed that it would be what it is today," Bob Bernstein detailed.
He would sell the patent to McDonald's four years later for just $1. Others within McDonald's Corporation helped the Happy Meal evolve to make the toy into the staple prize for generations.
Bob Bernstein also added that he doesn't claim to have invented the concept of a kid's meal. But he is the one with a bronze Happy Meal in his office from the McDonald's Corporation in 1987.
It reads, "Thank you for bringing the Happy Meal, a bold idea to the McDonald's system. Your insight and conviction truly has made McDonald's a fun place for children for the past 10 years."
"It is the greatest promotion in the history of promotions, a billion sold a year. So to see it go from a KC promotion to a worldwide promotion and permanently on the McDonald's menu, it's an incredible thing," Steve Bernstein said.
