Story:
In 2010, McDonald’s mistakenly packed and distributed 5,000 Happy Meals with a Condom instead of a toy.
Other Versions
McDonald’s Apologizes after 5,000 Happy Meals were distributed with colored condoms instead of a plastic toy from a movie.
Fact Check:
A weird story doing rounds online claims in 2010 McDonald’s mistakenly packed and distributed 5,000 Happy Meals with a Condom instead of a plastic toy from a movie. No, the claims are not true – such an incident didn’t really take place.
McDonald’s Didn’t Distribute 5,000 Happy Meals With a Condom
Since many years, the strange claims are appearing on various online platforms sharing weird and historical facts. Happy Meal is a kids’ meal McDonald’s has been selling since 1979. It usually comes in a red cardboard box including a small toy from current trend along with the food. The stories in circulation claim McDonald’s distributed the happy meals with condom by mistake and even apologized for it later. However, the fact of the matter is something different.
Related Incident(s) from Past
In April 2007, a McDonald’s restaurant in New Zealand gave away a condom with one of its children’s meals. The condom came inside a small sports bag coming free with the meal. A spokesperson for McDonalds explained the sports bags were a late substitute for the previous Happy Meal toy, which were sold out. The sports bag ending up with the customer was not sealed and used for display purposes. He said the condom ended up in it somehow and the bag with the customer. The staff replaced the bag immediately for a pencil case. In 2009 again, a 7-year-old girl allegedly discovered a condom in her McDonald’s Happy Meal and reports said Swiss police were investigating into the incident.
Satire Publication
Following such reports, CAP News website cap-news.com published an article in June 2010 with title “McDonald’s Apologizes For Condoms In Happy Meals.” It said McDonald’s executives carried egg (McMuffin) faces after knowing the distribution of 5,000 Happy Meals with colored condoms in place of a plastic toy from movie ‘How To Train Your Dragon 2’.
Image of satirical article on CAP News website
CAP News website is in fact a satirical publication. The article said the condoms were intended for the Provincetown, Mass. school system, which recently established a policy making them available for students of all ages. Unaware of the satirical nature of the publication, some online outlets picked up the ‘breaking news.’ The false story keeps resurfacing on satirical platforms and also on funny meme websites.
Hoax or Fact:
Hoax.
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