I'm announcing the greatest Toy of the Year for Children's Day this year - a McDonald's and Star People joint creation for Children''s Day that immediately pops into my face!

Bubble-Mart's Star-Man blind box, and I'm very much involved; The stars of McDonald's co-signed, I'm gonna get it!!! Thank you, Mummy. Bubble Matt owes my blind box. You helped to pay it back as soon as you handed it out. You also gave me a nice meal by the way. Keep it alive, Mummy!

This year's June 1, McDonald's continued to land "like you to play" series of main activities, together with Bubble Mart popular IP stars, to create an immersive starlight children's world. With limited flavors, co-branded packaging, creative perks and offline experience spaces, McDonald's is offering consumers of all ages the same invitation: adults and children alike, come and play.

Starlings' choice is in itself a precise traffic bet. As the new IP of the fastest breaking billion in the history of Bubble Mart, Star People with the soft and warm image and the world view full of childlike imagination, quickly picked up Labubu and became the new top flow of Bubble Mart.

Starlings have pinpointed the emotional needs of today's young people and created a world of fairy tales for adults.

That's why Starlings quickly became a hit with brand logos. Cheerios have explored its warm, healing side, Beasts have witnessed its sweet heart movements in the name of love, and Coy's has made skin care narratives in the starlight.

And McDonald's, to the greatest extent to release the lovely side of the star people, the healing IP met the happy DNA of Maimen, and handed over a best joint model of children's day.

I. "Join" McDonald's, and McDonald's welcomes its sweetest employee

Starlings have "entered" McDonald's for the first time. A group of cute creatures have opened a McDonald's in their own little world. The yellow-skinned star and McDonald's are 100 percent compatible. Star Man: Mud howls, love you coming to play!

For the first time, Starlings took on the classic symbols of McDonald's - hamburgers, chips, and Chicken Meal - and paid tribute to Uncle McDonald, Big Brother Milkshake, Big Bird Sister, and Burger Thief, turning directly into Fries Star, Milkshake Star, Burger Star, and chicken star.

This is not a simple image OEM, but a co-creation of IP world view and brand products, so that the healing starlight directly into the happy scene of McDonald's, childlike innocence from the product level began.

Limited new products are also online in both beauty and flavor: Long Long Deep Sea Cod Castle from the deep waters of the North Pacific, Star-Wished Potato Cake with a star-like look, and the returning popularity of the Sea of Stars Salt and Sugar Wheat Tornado and orange-flavored frozen soda.

During the event, the theme series products were also replaced with Star People co-limited packaging, so that happiness not only remains in the taste buds, but also becomes a holiday memory that can be collected.

Handbook materials exist, and each one is a beautiful material. The packaging can be taken out as standing signs, the tray paper can be used as a handbook foundation material, the dipping box can be cut down as a refrigerator sticker... McDonald's, you're still making peripherals too comprehensive.

At the same time, the immersion offline has not gone away. Many stores across the country have been refurbished as "Starlight McDonald's" themed spaces, and six cities have rolled out themed pop-up stores, interactive installations such as dip fountains, French fries workshops, and rotating merlets, turning the dining space into a playground.

Many stores have directly changed into star "pain houses," and the subway station has also been occupied by stars, and the pillars have become a special calling stage, and the ambience is so full that even commuting to work cannot be suppressed by a scuffle.

What McDonald's wants is for the joint content to spill from the restaurant to the city's public spaces, create the sense of "joint signature everywhere" with high-density visual touchpoints, and strongly announce this joint signature!

But the top priority of this joint venture must also be children's day toys. As a toy maker, Macy's toys are still quite able to play this time.

The Star People Choir, which first went live on May 20, has four members: chips star, milkshake star, chicken star and hamburger star, each inspired by a classic McDonald's item, incorporating Star People's iconic hood and red face.

The potato star is the classic red and yellow skin, and looks like an old McDonald's employee at first glance. The milkshake star combines the thick look of Big Milk and is round and milky. The chicken star is silly and cute, with a bit of stubbornness, and the castle star is unreservedly cute.

Each toy comes equipped with three captivating anthems: “Nomnomnom,” “McChicken Song,” and “Star Man’s Song.” Simply press the switch to start singing right there and then. Placing it on your workstation serves as a miniature outlet for your emotions as an employee.Many connections can also dance in sync, directly forming a desktop mini choir, which shows off wherever it is, making netizens say, "Who said there was no dance in intra-entertainment?」

The Star Answerer will be launched on June 1, using the electronic answer book as an inspiration.When you press the button, amusing responses from the Star Person appear. Compared to the randomness of traditional cyber-lucky-draw sticks, the Star Person’s endearing responses turn selection anxiety into a lighthearted interaction, making it an incredibly soothing “top-tier lucky draw” for workers. This greatly remedies the shortcomings of cyber-lucky-draw machines, which are not as comforting.

From 520 to Children's Day, McDonald's this time jointly laid out two golden nodes in a precise manner. Based on the gentle healing temperament of the stars, 520 nodes do not emphasize love narratives, but provide a sense of companionship, suitable for couples and friends, and on Children's Day, they can easily switch to the fun channel to complete a collective indulgence for children of both sizes.

With the theme of "like you play," McDonald's layers of product packaging, toy accessories, and offline devices build a fun and playful experience path, allowing the same IP to unlock the greatest business value in different scenarios.

At a deeper level, this joint name is also a spiritual intertext between brands and IP. For many people, Mammon was a late-night comfort, a silent and reliable old friend in the city. And the small clumsiness of Starlings' imperfect but hard work 'is precisely a projection of the state of life of contemporary young people.

Against the backdrop of widespread anxiety, McDonald's has built a "fairytale sanctuary" for adults with a child heart as a shell. That's probably why big friends always want to walk into McDonald's every Children's Day - it's always capturing the mood of the times and silently taking in every heart that wants to be a kid for another day, in the lightest way possible with toys. McDonald's has actually practiced this ability to "protect the child's heart" for many years.

2. Coax adults into kids. McDonald's is professional.

McDonald's still has some ancestral skills in making people happy.

In the early years, Mommy brought joy and good memories to children through the classic combination of "happy paradise meals + toys."

However, a review of children's day events in recent years shows that brands have long since jumped out of this fixed template. Instead of just communicating around the parent-child scene, we have built June 1 into a festival scene that friends large and small can participate in through limited new products, creative accessories, IP joint signatures, and theme stores.

In 2023, coinciding with the fortieth anniversary of the birth of the Chicken Meat, McDonald's created a nostalgia special featuring the classic Chicken Meats under the theme of "One Start, One Childhood." In addition to launching exclusive offers, the brand also launched a Russian Cube game machine in the shape of a Mickey Mouse, reviving the public's childhood gaming memories with retro electronic toys.

In 2024, Mac Ma further amplifies the trend attributes of the Chicken with a series of child-hearted graffiti paintings featuring the theme "One Chicken, One Happy." Among them, the peripheral toy "Mikae Interaction" sold out quickly once it was launched, and even became a proprietary communication tool between Mikae.

In 2025, the brand launches a "Like You Please" campaign with international 3D artist Eva Cremers to bring a cross-border experience that blends delicious, artistic and childish fun, and launches Chicken McNugget Crunch and Chicken McPuffie Bubbler to continue to leverage the young consumer market with fun, interactive design.

It is not difficult to see that the core of Children's Day activities over the past few years has been centered around the toyization of products. McDonald's turned fast food consumption into a lightweight game, making peripheral toys go beyond simple buy-for-gift promotions to become social currency that can really play with consumers.

On June 1 this year, McDonald's game once again escalated.

Compared with the previous development of limited peripheral products around classic products such as McIlough and French fries, this year McIlough not only incorporates four classic products into the peripheral design, but also brings the brand IP that has been settled for many years back into the public view. Using the star-man image language, four Xiaofu becomes the chips star, the milkshake star, the chicken nugget star and the Dumpling star, together forming the "Star-Man Chorus."

This means that McDonald's is not just turning products into toys, but starting to re-IP their classic roles.

Looking back at the history of the Four Little Flakes, it can be found that Uncle McDonald, Burger Thief, Big Milk Brother and Big Bird Sister were once the brand's most recognizable symbolic assets. Since the brand entered mainland China in 1990, these mascots have not only frequently appeared in restaurants and advertisements, but have also been deeply embedded in many of the growing memories of the 1980s and 1990s.

For that generation of consumers, McDonald's was more than just a place to eat hamburgers and chips, and more like a real-world playground. As a child, having a birthday party at McDonald's, collecting toys for a Happy Birthday meal, or taking a family photo with a four-child would almost always be a high-profile moment in childhood social life.

However, after entering the 21st century, with the transformation of brand communication strategy, Qi Xiaofu gradually faded out of the public's view. They no longer feature highly in ads and stores, but as a result, they have become a more scarce nostalgia symbol, stuck in a generation's "memories of McDonald's."

But fading doesn't mean being forgotten. In recent years, the Four Little Flakes have still made brief appearances at McDonald's anniversary, themed marketing or fan events: the launch of the Four Little Futhemed packaging during Children's Day, themed subway cars, working on Dragon boating in Guangzhou's Hodejiang on Dragon Boat Festival, and the opening of hot dancing at fan conventions... McDonald's continues to awaken the public's mood through various lifestyle marketing scenarios.

And this time to join hands with the star people cross-border joint name, but also for the old classic IP to find a younger way to show. One side is the classic auspicious objects that carry the childhood memories of several generations, while the new generation of healing IP that has a large young audience and brings its own tide to play social properties. The combination of the two not only evokes the childhood emotions of the 80s and 90s, but also allows younger consumers to re-acquaint themselves with this group of old friends through the mature playful context of Bubble Mart.

On the surface, the Four Little Fences and Starlings come from two completely different eras and circles, but in reality, they both point to a state of softness, naivety, and a state that has not been fully disciplined by the adult world, which naturally fits the mood that Children's Day aims to convey.

So McDonald's found a subtle way to connect between the two: using brand classics to capture popular memories, creating freshness with trendy IPs, and once again amplifying the emotional value of "big friends deserve to be seriously coaxed once" in a special June Day scenario.

Looking back at McDonald's Children's Day campaigns over the years, it seems every year has a different game, but it's always answering the same question: How can brands continue to accompany consumers on Children's day when they're older?

McDonald's answer is - don't blindly chase the new trends, don't settle on old values, but let old assets grow into new expressions. The Chicken McNugget can be turned into a game console and intercom, and the Four Little Fox can re-enter the daily lives of young people with the help of the Starman's language.

Macmillan has turned sentimentality from a one-off "memoir" into a constantly updated way of communicating, so that "liking you to play" is no longer just a slogan, but rather an invitation to all consumers: no matter how old you are, you can rejoice here.

As a child, McDonald's filled the joys of childhood with toys. When they grow up, it gives busy adults who are out and about giving them a reason to continue to be children.

After all, who else would coax me as a child without McDonald's!