Microsoft’s got a pretty stellar track record of terrible Windows infomercials. Some for the consumer, some internal, all pretty rough. This 1988 video showcases Windows/386, a fairly impressive upgrade to Windows that introduced multitasking among other features. The impressiveness of the upgrade does not come through in this video. What begins as a dry-but-corny corporate…
Five Things – 4.16.12
1. McDonaldland – What became of McDonaldland? When I was a kid, going to McDonalds was a lot more involved than what I imagine it being like for a kid today. There was a level of mythos and lore to the experience that seemed unnecessarily deep for a fast-food company. Well, starting in the 1970s, as McDonalds transitioned from being a drive-in restaurant to a “dine-in” establishment, the company started heavily branding their kid’s stuff with McDonaldland.
There was basically a character for everything on the menu that was relevant to a kid (no salad shaker characters). The thing that got me wasn’t just the cast of characters, it was the fact that they inhabited their own world. This world showed up in the commercials, on the placemats, in the happy meal designs, and on the playground.
So what happened? Sure, Ronald survived and so did a few of his friends – Grimace, the Hamburglar, even Birdie shows up from time to time. But Mayor McCheese, the Fry Guys, Big Mac, the Professor (?!), and Captain Crook all seem to have disappeared. Well, Sid and Marty Krofft successfully sued McDonalds in the 1973, claiming that the entire concept was a ripoff of their show and specifically citing Mayor McCheese as being too similar to their own H.R. Pufnstuf. It didn’t help things that McDonalds had originally hoped the Kroffts would license their characters for McDonalds promotion in the early 1970s. As a result, the McDonaldland concept was gradually phased out and replaced with more a more sterile environment, which remains to this day.
It’s a shame. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, McDonaldland spoke to me as a kid as a place that seemed simply too bizarre to be real.