How McDonald’s has become a major player in children’s literature

McDonald’s celebrates the ten years of his book this year in the “Happy Meal” menu. A product acclaimed by young customers of the fast food brand, so much so that the American giant is one of the biggest children’s books distributors in France.

Last year in France, an out of five youth book came not from a bookstore, but…. With McDonald’s! For 10 years, children can indeed choose to be offered either a toy or a book with their “Happy Meal” menu. This is the case of Léopold, which in front of the counter of a McDo of the Paris region.

When his mother Lucile asks him what he prefers to accompany his menu at four euros, the three -year -old boy chooses without hesitation “The book”.

Each week, Lucile goes with her son to the McDo. “I think we have about fifty of these books. Suddenly, he has his collection at home. The stories are super well written, the vocabulary is quite rich. It gave him the taste for reading”, she welcomes herself.

This little book also hackers her to make her son eat McDo. “Both we bring a book to our child and we see the collection accumulating … So these are obvious evidence of our passage to the McDonalds”, she recognizes smiling, adding that on the resale site vined, “They are sold a fortune, there is a McDonald’s book market.”

For the fast food chain associated with junk food, it is obviously a question of image. Because that makes McDo one of the biggest players in the children’s book in France. In ten years, the brand has distributed 150 million pounds for children, including 25 million last year. For comparison, Amazon, Fnac, Cultura or Leclerc sell a total of 80 million youth pounds per year, according to figures for 2023. The operation of books in the Happy Meals is done in partnership with Hachette, who entrusts the writing to stars of literature: Marc Levy, Katherine Pancol and, this year, Agnès Martin-Lugand.

These books offered in fast food, make “bleeding the heart” From Véronique, a bookseller installed a few hundred meters from the McDonald’s. “We present the book as something free, in exchange for a hamburger, so junk food. In fact something that is free, it is something that has no value. However, the book has a value”she noted.

To these criticisms, McDonald’s replied that no one other than they can touch as many people, all social classes, to promote reading. The American brand says that ten years ago, at the start of the operation, only one in ten children chose the book rather than the toy, while today, it is one in three children.

Even the National Book Center, public establishment of the Ministry of Culture, has teamed up with the operation. Its managing director Pascal Perrault fully assumes it, in a context where, “From year to year that there is a very sensitive drop in reading among young people, who have a time available which is completely devoured by the screens”. “And therefore we are looking for means to touch them and particularly touch them non-readers who often come from modest family backgrounds and where there is no book”, he said. “Sometimes reading is due to very little. A work found in a happy meal can contribute to it”, concludes Pascal Perrault.