By: Becca Hall [Executive Online Editor] @chewwbecccaa

This Monday McDonald’s tweeted out some big news: the classics like Ronald McDonald and the Hamburglar are being replaced with a new mascot named “Happy” who is supposed to endorse healthier food choices in happy meals. Happy’s design is very simplistic, he is simply a Happy Meal box with arms, legs, eyes, a mouth and a big set of teeth. All of these assets combined together create a bit of a creepy look- especially for a mascot marketed to children.

According to MarketWatch, Happy isn’t exactly new to the world. In 2009 the terrifying mascot was introduced to France, and was also used in parts of Europe and Latin America. The bug eyed character is supposed to be in stores this Friday.

When McDonalds introduced their newest addition over the social media network, Twitter, this Monday the comments were nothing but positive. Many twitter users responded saying things such as, “Is he in pain?”, “Might want to go back to the drawing board, I think I’m going to have nightmares.”, and “It’s the meal that eats you.” Many also described it as terrifying, horrifying, and off-putting.

Some people think that this is just a social media stunt to get the fast food chain more attention. Saying the more someone hears about McDonald’s the bigger the chance that they will want to get some of their famous salt-loaded fries or a double-cheese burger. But the clues point more to the facts that the restaurant is fully behind this change, no matter how negative the reviews. They even posted the picture below poking fun at their negative reviews captioned “Meanwhile at Happy Headquarters…” and later tweeted that they “#CantStopSmiling about the #HappyMeal.

It seems that McDonald’s is determined to stand behind their new supposedly more healthy mascot despite the fact that some say they fear Happy is going to eat their soul.