McDonald’s Japan has abruptly pulled the plug on its highly anticipated One Piece Card Game Happy Meal promotional campaign, which was slated to launch next week.
The collaboration, which was set to to begin on August 29th, would've seen One Piece Card Game trading cards included as collectible giveaways with every Happy Meal. Given the popularity of the One Piece franchise and Bandai's accompanying One Piece Card Game, the tie-in was generating immense excitement from both kids and collectors.
Unfortunately, the promotion has been called off. The One Piece Card Game staff directed fans to the official McDonald's website for more information.
The statement reads:
As part of a review of our Happy Set initiatives, we have decided to cancel the Happy Set campaign that had been scheduled to begin on Friday, August 29.
During this period, customers who purchase a Happy Set will instead receive toys and other items from past campaigns.
Please note that some media outlets are planning to publish advance announcement articles about this campaign, but we ask that you refrain from contacting the rights holders, manufacturers, or publishing media outlets with any inquiries.
While no specific reason was given for the cancellation, it comes in the wake of the previous, chaotic Pokemon Trading Card Game promotion. The earlier promotion, which ran from August 9th through August 11th, featured a Pokemon card two-pack included with Happy Meals.
The hype surrounding this tie-in led to long lines, disruptive crowds, and food waste (mostly from resellers who were only interested in the cards). Following the rollout, McDonald's japan released an apology for “not being able to meet the expectations of our customers who were looking forward to the product due to the early end of distribution."
It's believed that the widespread criticism surrounding this Pokemon debacle is what ultimately led to McDonald's canceling the upcoming One Piece promotion. Although McDonald's promised to take measures going forward to prevent bulk purchases of Happy Meal campaign sets, it seems that the company has instead decided to forgo running the One Piece Card Game campaign entirely.
Both One Piece and Pokemon are incredibly popular in Japan, so it's not really surprising to see tie-ins met with such enthusiasm. Unfortunately, scalpers and collectors tend to ruin everything.