Burger King brings back ball pits & admits “Creepy King” mascot alienated families

by

Burger King is once again offering ball pits and play spaces for children, signaling a shift away from its recent focus on adults and the “Creepy King” character. This marks a return to being more family-friendly.

For children who grew up in the 1990s and 2000s, the play areas at fast food restaurants like McDonald’s and Burger King were a common and much-loved part of going out to eat. Many millennials and those in early Gen Z remember fondly crawling through tunnels, climbing ladders, and playing in the ball pit.

Over the past ten years, a lot of fast food restaurants have stopped including play areas for children… but Burger King is now trying to change that and bring them back.

I was so excited to hear that Burger King is bringing back play areas for kids! They announced it at their convention in September 2025. It’s designed for children under 10, and it’s really cool – a modular playplace decked out in Burger King’s classic Orange and White! Imagine climbable castle towers, slides, and even a ball pit! It sounds like a fantastic place for little ones to have fun.

In a recent interview, Burger King’s Chief Marketing Officer, Joel Yashinsky, explained the decision to reintroduce play areas to their restaurants. He stated that the company aims to be fun and welcoming for families.

“We’ve always been a family brand at our core,” he explained. “That’s reflected in everything we create-our advertising, our social media-it’s a brand that’s inviting and enjoyable, but always respectful of others.”

Although Burger King’s play areas weren’t as well-known or plentiful as McDonald’s play areas in the past, they are now clearly trying to compete more and are again focusing on making fast food enjoyable for kids. They’re bringing the fun back to the experience.

Burger King retires its “Creepy King” mascot as it becomes more family-friendly

That’s not the only major update to Burger King’s image, though. Yashinsky also shared that they’ve decided to stop using ‘The King’ mascot, explaining that it frightened younger children. (The King was originally retired in 2011, but occasionally reappeared in certain ads.)

We gained several insights from our experience with ‘Creepy King,’ and we’ve decided not to focus on that character anymore because he didn’t resonate with a wide audience,” he explained.

As a big Burger King fan, I was really happy to see they’re adding new play areas! It’s such a nice change because a lot of other fast food places are actually making theirs smaller, or just not even bothering to put them in at all. It’s a welcome surprise, honestly, and a great thing for families. I think it’s smart of them to do this, especially when so many competitors are paring down their play spaces-or skipping them completely. It’s a good move for them!

According to Darren Tristano, president of the food service research and consulting firm Technomic, it’s not financially practical for fast food restaurants to invest in building, maintaining, and repairing these locations. He believes the costs simply don’t add up.

Over the past 30 to 40 years, playgrounds have generally become smaller and more compact. In many instances, they’ve even been moved outdoors, which isn’t ideal during the winter months. It’s reached a stage where they are significantly smaller and less useful,” he explained in an interview with Eater.

According to Dr. Erin Carr-Jordan, who founded the research group Kids Play Safe – an organization dedicated to children’s health, safety, and well-being – restaurants struggle to adequately sanitize play areas, particularly since the pandemic began.

According to her, many business owners and operators – and this is her understanding – simply didn’t want to put in the effort to maintain their locations. It wasn’t worth the trouble of regularly servicing and cleaning the equipment. She believes this is why so many McDonald’s restaurants have closed.”

Read More

2025-10-02 00:19