Oh wow. IIRC I had the Bruce and Selina one. Burger King, right?
No, McDonald's, including Happy Meal toys, which was very controversal.
NBC reporter Faith Daniels devoted the July 3, 1992 episode of her daily talk show, A Closer Look With Faith Daniels, which aired on NBC at 12 pm, to ''Parents Against Batman Returns.'' Faith Daniels, who refused to take her 5-year-old son to see the movie, said ''It's fine to make Batman Returns an adult film, but don't market it to kids. It's rated PG-13, but who's buying the action toys? Not 13-year-olds.'' The Los Angeles Times published letters that protested ''one violent image after another.'' ''Has McDonald's no conscience?'' another letter asked. Meanwhile, the Michigan-based Dove Foundation, a nonsectarian Christian organization, has protested the McDonald's Happy Meal promotion, designed for children 1 to 10. ''Parents trust McDonald's,'' says a Dove spokesman. ''So why is McDonald's promoting a movie to little kids that's filled with gratuitous graphic violence?''
This caused McDonald's to claim that the Batman Returns toys they were selling were not promotion for the movie at all. McDonald's spokeswoman Rebecca Caruso said, ''The objective of the (Happy Meal) program was to allow young people to experience the fun of Batman the character. It was not designed to promote attendance at the movie. It was certainly not our intent to confuse parents or disappoint children.''
Warner Brothers also claimed that the McDonald's Happy Meal promotion wasn't tied to the movie but to the Batman character. ''We were careful not to provide actual toys from the movie,'' says a Warner spokeswoman. She insists that Batman Returns is rated responsibly. ''Clearly Batman Returns is not meant for 5-year-olds. As for whether it's appropriate to Happy Meals, that's up to McDonald's. We don't tell them their business.''
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,311012,00.html
McDonald's was clearly promoting the film Batman Returns:
And the Happy Meal toys are clearly promoting Batman Returns featuring the films version of the Batmobile and Batman in the Batmissile from Batman Returns and the Penguin in a yellow vehicle, even showing that spiral umbrella from Batman Returns which Max Shreck said "What is that suppose to do? Hypnotize me?":
McDonald's issued a written apology to the Dove Foundation, a non-sectarian organization, that charged McDonald's with promoting Batman Returns as an acceptable movie for children. "The object of our Happy Meal program was to simply allow young people to experience the fun associated with the character Batman," Jack Daly, McDonald's communications vice president, said in a prepared release. "It was not designed to promote attendance at the movie or to take the place of parents using their best judgment regarding which movies their children are allowed to see."
"We think McDonald's was culpable in the fact that the figurines they packed in the Happy Meals were advertised as safe for children 1 years old and up, and they were designed to promote a movie created for viewers 13 years of age and over," explained Richard Rolfe, managing director of the Dove Foundation. Dove characterizes itself as a foundation that previews and identifies movies that adhere to accepted Judeo-Christian values.
"McDonald's has historically had Happy Meal premium tie-ins with more benign films, like those of Disney," said Pat Broeske, a correspondent for Entertainment Weekly magazine. "Parents who saw the TV ads most likely figured if McDonald's was involved, it was acceptable for children. McDonald's is looked upon as someone they can trust."
Because of the controversy and protests McDonald's stopped selling Batman Returns merchandise prematurely. The McDonald's representative said the national advertising schedule for McDonald's-Batman Returns ended on July 2, 1992.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_n29_v26/ai_12477873/
t:: 
