Amy Bruni, best known as a paranormal investigator on the SyFy series Ghost Hunters , says she has received nasty messages and suggestions that she and her family should die after she shared a photo of a Ouija board themed Happy Meal box. Bruni shared the photo as a joke, expecting fans to know it was a parody and to laugh along.
Many did not.
Instead, many responded with horror, anger, and shock:
Ouija boards are NOT toys and should not be marketed to kids. It’s a portal to Hell. Literally. Don’t mess with it unless you want uninvited dark spirits invading your home and possessing your things and/or family.
Ohhh your soo excited to give children satanic weegie boards…… bafoonish America just lovingly keeps giving over its ways and its children over to Satan.
Seriously is this a joke????!!!! What you try to kids turn them into ghotic or in demon cult?? Are mc Donald that stupid!!!
Bruni responded many times, trying to keep up with the increasingly upset comments and assuring fans that McDonalds is not actually offering Happy Meal boxes with Ouija boards printed on them:
Ummm, hey…guys? Hey? Hi. This is a JOKE. Sarcasm. Satire. Hence the winky face…and the clear ridiculousness of there being a ouija board Happy Meal. And even crazier than that, that I would ever eat at McDonalds. Ok, all done? Phew. Goodnight!
Still, she says now that she has received many nasty comments via Facebook’s messaging system, including death wishes aimed at her and her family.
True story – more than one person has wished death on me and/or my family because I posted the McDonalds Ouija board Happy Meal joke.
— Amy Bruni (@amybruni) August 28, 2014
McDonald’s has also been on the receiving end of horrified comments at their supposed Ouija board promotion:
McDonald’s,……. Please,….PLEASE tell me it’s not true that you’re going to issue happy meal boxes with ouija boards on the side of them! Ouija boards are a gateway to evil and death. I have seen this firsthand in my own life. I personally will be FINISHED with McDonald’s forever, as will millions of others and we will lead a MASSIVE boycotte of all McDonald’s! Please tell me it’s just a bad roumor…….
The fast food giant assures us that they would never offer any such promotion, and that their Halloween Happy Meal promotions have, for years, been given in plastic buckets that can be decorated with stickers and used for Trick-or-Treating.
In fact the source of the image is Newt Clements, an artist who has designed dozens of Happy Meal boxes and shared them on Pinterest. Not many of Clements’ designs are anything McDonald’s would ever think of promoting for children: they include Freddy Krueger of Nightmare on Elm Street , Chucky, from Child’s Play , and other horror icons.
Not only are these designs a bit mature for Happy Meal promotions, fast food meals that include toys usually focus them on things currently being promoted, rather than decades-old movies. Clements’ designs, created with Photoshop, are for art and entertainment, not as actual Happy Meal boxes.
The rumors spread so far and wide that Snopes even moved quickly to debunk it , yet outrage and concern over an imagined Ouija board Happy Meal continues to net nasty messages for Amy Bruni, and threats of boycott for McDonalds.
[photo credit: JeepersMedia via photopin cc , Newt Clements ]
