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Burger King takes a shot at McDonald's Happy Meals with a dark ad showing bullying, unpaid student loans, and mental health struggles
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Burger King takes a shot at McDonald's Happy Meals with a dark ad showing bullying, unpaid student loans, and mental health struggles

  • Burger King is taking another jab at McDonald's, this time with "Real Meals."
  • Boxed meals like the Pissed Meal, Salty Meal, and DGAF Meal are a clear shot at McDonald's Happy Meal. 
  • The meals are accompanied by a new ad from Burger King, highlighting mental health and showing individuals struggling with issues such as bullying, student loans, and being ghosted before a date. 
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Burger King is taking another jab at McDonald's. 

On Wednesday, the fast-food chain debuted a series of "Real Meals," a clear counter to McDonald's iconic Happy Meals. The moods of these boxed meals include the Pissed Meal, Blue Meal, Salty Meal, YAAAS Meal and DGAF Meal.

The Real Meals boxes - which include the Whopper meal or a Whopper, fries, and a drink - are available at a handful of locations in Austin, Seattle, Miami, Los Angeles, and New York City starting Wednesday. 

While the Real Meal rollout is limited, it is part of a wider campaign by the chain to promote mental health, with Burger King releasing an atypical commercial of sorts on the subject. 

"Not everybody wakes up happy," a young man says in the starting seconds of the video. "Sometimes you feel sad, scared, crappy. All I ask is that you let me feel my way." 

The video goes on to show a teenage girl discovering the word "skank" carved into her locker, an angry woman yelling that she just told her boss "to go f--- himself," and a young man despairing over student loans. Other people featured in the video are dealing with being ghosted and being judged as a young mother. 

The video closes with the words: "No one is happy all the time. And that's OK." Images of the different Real Meals then flash on the screen. 

Watch the video here: 

 

Burger King partnered with the nonprofit Mental Health America to launch the Real Meal campaign. 

"A natural extension of encouraging people to 'be their way' is encouraging them to 'feel their way,'" Burger King said in a press release. "With the pervasive nature of social media, there is so much pressure to appear happy and perfect. With Real Meals, the Burger King brand celebrates being yourself and feeling however you want to feel."