How do you guys feel about this? Did Scholastic's marketing relationship with McDonald's penetrate the Animorphs series? Is this product placement?
Fairly sure K.A never got anything for plugging McDonald's in her books. And if she says she didn't, then I believe her.
Also, aside from a few books (#12, #14, #16, etc), she always tried to reference real people and real world things (bands, tv shows, toys, etc) rather than make up fake ones, so that kids could relate with them better. And it worked too, because one of the biggest things that appealed to me when I first read the series was that you could actually
believe that this was happening in
your town, or any other town.
And honestly, who in the world
hasn't heard of McDonald's? IMO, it was a smart choice, and was the main reason for it. It's the most accessible of all burger places. There's a McDonald's
everywhere, and insinuating that your local McDonald's was actually a Yeerk front was a brilliant way to add to my childhood paranoia.
(In fact, I probably wouldn't mind if they added Starbucks to that, as a way of updating with the times with these new releases coming out.
)