I must rant on McD Hello Kitty craze.

Pardon me if you think it's too excessive but there's just some things we need to know or rethink when it comes to holding campaigns.

So, recently McD launched the Hello Kitty Fairy Tales series in Singapore after Hong Kong. Each kitty is priced at $4.60 with every meal purchase. The series consist of five themed, weekly released kitty, one special mcdelivery kitty, and as percedented, the last Hello Kitty of the series released is a country exclusive limited edition design. For Singapore, it is an all black, skeleton kitty named, Singing Bones. I would say there is a good build up to the campaign and progressive response by McD & Hello Kitty fans when became overwhelming eventually.

The launch of the first two kitties of the series saw pretty good response which saw the kitties finding new home in a matter of days before selling out. The mcdelivery kitty caused sharp increase in web ordering that the system faced a shutdown due to overloading. Then came the third fairy tale kitty which saw even better response. The fourth kitty of the series is the ugly duckling. Or I call it the jaundice kitty. I thought response wouldn't be so good after all it's yellow. Like duck and cat combination? I was never so wrong. It was sold out in most outlets by breakfast hours, and by lunchtime, it was announced by McD's Facebook that it was sold out islandwide.  

Anticipating an even stronger response, McD tried to mitigate the situation by limiting the purchase to 4 per person. Did I say that you have to buy a meal to qualify for one kitty purchase? Yes. 

Then came the dreadful day where fans were queueing as early as 6pm the day before, hoping to be the first to get their kitties at 12am. Others queued overnight at McD's non-24 hours outlets. 

What was wrong? There's willing parties to purchase, willing parties to queue. Perfect? 

No.

There were opportunists (reads black market) who took in pre-orders online before the launch, there were non McD diners, non this non that. Then there's the people who sent one family member to queue, when the queue coupons were given out, before you know, the entire family cuts your queue and swoop up all the kitty coupons. Fights ensued. 

Morality aside, people and do whatever they want and who am I to care? What really hurts me is really, the wastage of food. You've seen and heard about the craze. As crazy as it is, is the amount of wastage. Having four meals to one individual for the sake of four kitties which is being black marketed for skyhigh and unrealistic prices now. Imagine the amount of waste. Either that or obesity. Sheessshhhh. 

I'm sure more can be done. Like selling meal vouchers in place. Or seize the chance for a food donation drive, like diners who wish to donate their may do so while McD delievers to the needy and gaining publicity at the same time. That being said, it's easier said than done as McD have to gauge their food supply. Just limit one kitty to one person saves all trouble. Fair.

Wastage is like robbing the poor of food and dumping it. Deep within, it's humiliation and causes great chagrin. 

Do good. Be good. Thank you.

photo: ebay singapore