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Toy Story battles with Burgers & Toys

The war between TOY STORY and POKEMON over kids' piggy bank change hasmoved to a new battle field -- the local burger joint! McDonald's Corp.,the U.S.-based, world-wide burger chain, has released TOY STORY 2 toys inconnection with the recently released film. The McDonald's promotion,featuring a collection of 20 different characters from the TOY STORY 2movie, will be distributed with each Happy Meal purchase. The chain willalso offer six TOY STORY 2-themed candy dispensers for $1.99 each with thepurchase of a Happy Meal or large sandwich. This large campaign must nowcompete with the wildly successful POKEMON toys featured at McDonald'schief rival, Burger King. Demand for Burger King's POKEMON trading cardsand creatures, complete with a plastic Pokeball key-chain, has causedshortages in Southern California and parts of Texas. The 57 different toysavailable in the POKEMON collection seems to be a daunting figure tocollect for kids -- and parents who want children to eat meals thatdistinctly come from the four-major food groups. However, fear not tofuwarriors, Burger King has allocated Tuesdays as POKEMON trading day.Therefore, kids can get their weekly shake and fry fix while trading awaythat sixteenth copy of Charmander that they really don't need. With theleading fast-food chains locked in promotional combat, the result will behard times for other fast-food peddlers, predicted Ron Paul, president ofTechnomic Inc., a Chicago-based restaurant consultancy. Although BurgerKing's promotion may collect some of McDonald's success, Paul believes bothwill emerge from the fourth quarter with gains in same-store sales. "Whenall the attention gravitates to a couple of players, it has an impact onthe whole market. There are still just so many lunches and dinnersavailable. It makes other players cringe," he said.

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Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks

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