The Unruly History of McDonald's PlayPlaces: Fun with a Dark Side

In the early 1970s, a trip to the McDonald’s in Chula Vista, California, was as close as kids could get to stepping into a fast-food ad. The outdoor dining area connected to a playground full of well-known characters. The Hamburglar was transformed into a 10-foot-tall swing set, Officer Big Mac became a hollow jungle gym, and Grimace took the form of a child-sized cage. Meanwhile, Ronald McDonald stood as the reigning clown king of this whimsical world, just as Illinois Parks and Recreation described the playground prototype in 1972.

Children adored McDonald's first PlayPlace as much as they did its French fries, and parents were equally fond of it. During the early days of the “stranger danger” era, when news stories about child abductions were everywhere, some parents saw unsupervised park visits as a dangerous venture. A fenced-in play area on private property, with admission priced at the cost of a burger, became a much-needed, safer alternative.

While parents might have felt a sense of security letting their kids roam McDonald's fenced-in play zones, any actual safety was a mere illusion. Over the years, as PlayPlaces spread across the nation and became central to the brand, McDonald's worked hard to keep hidden the stories of second-degree burns, infectious bacteria, and broken bones that marred its reputation.

Cheeseburger in Paradise

After captivating the appetites of adults, McDonald's shifted its focus to the younger crowd. In 1971, the company launched an inventive marketing strategy with the debut of McDonaldland, a whimsical fast food-themed world filled with Ronald and his companions. By the end of the decade, the first Happy Meals were introduced nationwide. Adding playgrounds in the early ‘70s marked a bold move for the chain, but it quickly became one of its most popular features.

McDonald’s first tested a prototype of its PlayLand, later rebranded as PlayPlace, at the Illinois State Fair in 1972. Designed by the Hollywood studio Setmakers, Inc., the 4,800-square-foot playground allowed kids to climb, slide, and swing with their favorite McDonaldland characters. Among the fun touches were a smiling apple pie tree, a Filet-O’-Fish fountain, and singing wastebaskets that encouraged visitors to ‘feed’ them.

McDonald’s anticipated that the playground would see about three years of use after only 10 days at the high-traffic fair. After approximately 350,000 young visitors experienced it, the playground passed all safety inspections and was cleared for installation at restaurants.

The first official McDonald’s PlayLand, which opened in Chula Vista, California, proved to be an enormous hit. It was about twice the size of the pilot version in Illinois and led to a 60% increase in business for the location after its opening. Other franchises across the U.S. soon followed suit, and by 1991, McDonald’s had become the largest playground operator in America, with over 3,000 PlayPlaces.

This era coincided with a nationwide focus on children’s safety. In the wake of several high-profile child abductions, families were bombarded with reminders of their children's vulnerability through milk cartons, afterschool specials, and even board games. McDonald’s PlayLand was already regarded as safer than a typical public park, and this safety aspect became a major selling point through the 1980s and ‘90s. Many PlayPlaces underwent a complete indoor makeover. Wood and metal were replaced by rubber and plastic. Instead of swinging on freestanding swings and sliding on open-top slides, children now enjoyed ball pits and crawled through soft netting tubes.

These changes signaled the beginning of the 'soft play' era, a reflection of society’s growing concerns, but McDonald’s wasn’t merely responding to public perception. The older metal PlayLands from the 1970s were genuinely hazardous, and in many instances, parents should have been more concerned with the equipment inside the restaurant than the potential dangers from outsiders.

Play at Your Own Risk

Screams were common in the McDonald’s playground in Rialto, California, but one cry stood out. Four-year-old Dennis Williams descended the metal slide with a look of distress instead of delight. He waved his hands as if they were coated in hot oil and let out a pained cry. Moments later, a girl emerged from the slide with an angry pink mark on her bare calf.

The second-degree burns that sent Williams to urgent care in 1986 were just one of many PlayPlace- and PlayLand-related injuries that McDonald’s allegedly failed to report during the 1970s and 1980s. On hot summer days, the metal equipment wasn’t the only hazard—the old-fashioned structures also caused concussions, broken bones, and skull fractures, many of which stemmed from the notorious Big Mac Climber jungle gym.

While incidents like the notorious flesh-burning slide in Rialto occasionally made headlines, most McDonald’s customers remained unaware of these risks, as did the U.S. government. Rather than disclosing the dangers of older playgrounds, the company reportedly—and quietly—revamped its play areas, replacing old equipment with padded, plastic structures. The last Big Mac climbers were removed in 1997, but not in time to avoid public scrutiny. Following lawsuits and consumer complaints, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) launched an investigation into injuries linked to the climbers. In 1999, McDonald's paid a $4 million fine to the CPSC—one of the largest penalties the agency had ever imposed at that time. This was only the beginning of McDonald's public relations troubles.

A Distasteful Atmosphere

In the 21st century, many Americans began to challenge the 'Disneyfication' of major fast food brands, especially McDonald's. Childhood obesity rates had surged by more than 50 percent between the 1960s and 2000s, and McDonald's was frequently blamed for contributing to the epidemic. In 2004, the documentary Super Size Me examined the health impacts of regular visits to the chain. McDonald’s became synonymous with unhealthy food, and its popularity among children—a result of its aggressive marketing—made the brand a prime target for critics.

For children who visited McDonald's only occasionally, the nutritional value of the food wasn’t the biggest threat to their health. The real risks were likely to come after their meal, as they played in the PlayPlace. In 2011, a mother and child development professor from Arizona collected bacterial samples from several fast food playgrounds for testing. The results revealed an alarmingly high number and variety of harmful bacteria, including coliform and staph. As one microbiologist who reviewed the findings told The New York Times, the results suggested that 'these places are not cleaned properly or not cleaned at all.'

Despite being relocated indoors and revamped with plastic for safety reasons, McDonald's PlayPlaces were far from harmless. Because these areas were categorized as 'nonfood' zones, they didn’t have to adhere to the same cleanliness standards as the rest of the restaurant. Inspections were infrequent, and garbage left inside complex play tubes often went unnoticed. There were even reports of hypodermic needles being found in these play areas (although stories of children getting pricked and dying from them are considered urban legends).

While outdoor playgrounds were frequently cleaned by rain and sunlight, indoor PlayPlaces—filled with children sticky from ice cream or worse—became ideal environments for bacteria to thrive in the hidden corners and crevices.

Work without play can wear you down, but that’s the reality McDonald’s was facing when they phased out their PlayPlaces. Their decline was hastened by accusations of unsanitary conditions, and the public outcry about promoting unhealthy eating habits in kids. As a result, the Happy Meal was downsized with healthier options in 2011, and by 2016, Ronald McDonald disappeared from commercials. Throughout the 2010s, McDonald’s shifted to a more modern and minimalistic design for its outlets, leaving behind the PlayPlaces. By 2020, the pandemic forced the closure of the remaining play areas, many of which never reopened.

The fast food industry has seen a massive shift over the past half-century. With the rise of delivery apps, eating out at restaurants has become less common, leading chains to reconsider the value of creating attractive dining spaces. Maintaining a playground, especially in today’s health-conscious environment, is no longer cost-effective. Even at locations bustling with children, the expense of upkeep often outweighs the benefits.

Instead of focusing on young children, McDonald’s has redirected its marketing efforts to the generation that remembers the brand’s golden years: Millennials. By offering retro Happy Meal toys for adults, a chain centered on beverages, and a quirky birthday promotion starring Grimace, McDonald’s hopes to tap into nostalgia. However, as ‘90s kids enter their thirties, playgrounds and tube slides are likely to remain a part of the brand’s past.

In an era when nostalgia sells, McDonald’s has adjusted its approach, shifting from catering to children to courting Millennials who grew up with the brand. Retro-themed Happy Meal toys for adults, Grimace's offbeat birthday promotion, and the opening of a drink-focused chain reflect this shift. But while these strategies appeal to older generations, playgrounds and slides from the ‘90s are a part of McDonald’s legacy that seems unlikely to make a comeback.