User:Mailer diablo/S

Hello Kitty's counterpart Dear Daniel in his Korean wedding costume, one of the six sets that was released by McDonalds.

The Hello Kitty toy promotion, also known as the Hello Kitty craze, refers to a 2000 sales promotion by McDonalds in Singapore. It gave away complimentary Hello Kitty dolls in various wedding themes with the purchase of its Extra-Value Meals. 2.8 million doll sets were given out in the duration of the promotion ^[1], raking in a total of S$20 million for the fast-food restaurant chain. ^[2] The dolls quickly became the commodity that customers were paying for rather than the meals, leading to the creation of an option for the latter to be donated to charity.

The advertising stint unexpectedly gained international notoriety for its massive overnight queuing, unruly and even violent behaviour by its people in a country where social unrest is practically unheard of.^[3][4] The phenomenon subsequently sparked a public debate, and was widely criticised by commentators as an extreme version of the kiasu attitude inculcated within Singaporeans.

[edit] The promotion

The 40-day promotion featured a pair of Hello Kitty and Daniel Star dolls as a wedding set, consisting in total of six designs. McDonalds launched the promotion in the new millennium on 1 January 2000 with the release of the first set, with subsequent sets originally slated for release on every Thursday.

^{[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41]}

[edit] References