Fueling young minds with aspirational stories one Happy Meal® at a time

I Can Dream Big retail poster with purple background

Opportunity

According to the National Literacy Trust, a UK-based charitable organization supported by McDonald’s, nearly 1 in 10 (9.7%) adolescents in 2022 who received free school meals did not have a book of their own at home. With this lack of accessibility to books for young students in mind, McDonald’s and tms set out to create “I Can Dream Big,” the latest iteration of the global Happy Meal® Readers program which builds off its original principles originating in 2001. The series consists of aspirational children’s books that encourage children to fall in love with reading with the help of fun and relatable storylines, accompanied by engaging new digital elements, activity sheets, and more.

A seminal partnership was formed between tms, McDonald’s, and the Little People Big, Dreams brand, growing the partnership from a brief book series to strategizing a compelling new global Happy Meal Readers program. McDonald’s and tms strategized the concept of “I Can,” an idea centered around empathy, putting an emphasis on relatable stories with inspirational figures while giving children easy access to read with every Happy Meal. Commencing in August of 2022, the books touch on a variety of interests and lessons, offered as a choice alongside the Happy Meal® toy.

Book or Toy poster image with Happy Meal box and books

The Happy Meal® Readers x Little People, Big Dreams partnership was thoughtfully designed with families in mind. Using the scale of the McDonald’s system, all partners came together to place books in the hands of children and families to make reading fun through moments of togetherness.

Philip Sheard

VP, Delivery, Global Happy Meal® at tms

Approach

The Happy Meal Reader initiative is based on three major pillars: entertainment, empowerment, and democratization. These pillars guided us towards creating accessible books that educate, motivate, and empower readers, while also providing storylines that are eye-opening yet relatable.

Using qualitative and quantitative analysis in nine global markets, we selected engaging and confidence-boosting stories that teach important life lessons with engaging illustrations to keep little readers captivated. Through McDonald’s research, we found the most successful themes are animals, nature, and science. Other storylines range from athletics to social initiatives, including titles like “I Can Be a Sports Star,” “I Can Be a Champion of Change,” and “I Can Be a Talented Musician.” While these books are designed as condensed versions to fit within the Happy Meal packaging, full-versions of the books are available for purchase in retail book stores.

McDonald’s and tms also created digital activities and games which correspond with the Happy Readers series that can be accessed by scanning the QR Code on the Happy Meal Readers Book, extending the storylines and education beyond the books to increase engagement and make young readers feel as they are a part of the protagonist’s adventure!

Outcome

The readers have proven to be a global success, with 17 books published in 2022 and 41 diverse role models featured in over 100 countries. Since 2001, tms and McDonald’s have been passionate about making books accessible for children and have produced nearly 1 billion books as of 2023, making McDonald’s one of the largest children’s books distributors in the world. Through the “I Can Dream Big” Happy Meal Readers initiative since 2022, McDonald’s has successfully put over 50 million books into the hands of young readers.