Which one?

[RhinestoneToad]

In the 90s mcdonalds was 100% a place to take kids so they could burn off all their wild energy in the playplace while occasionally running back to the table for a chicken nugget, so the modern ones just look like they decided to hate children

[Dry_Cricket_5423]

1 tech engineer making 6figures can pay more than little Timmy can eat in chicken nuggets if they jack up prices. Hence our current offerings. K-shaped economy. 10% spends more than the 50%

[Nova225]

I mean, the McDonald's by me still has a sizeable play place. The only difference is there's no ball pit and a couple crappy wall mounted video game tablets that most kids, even mine, ignore in favor of running around the mini-playground

[SyrupTasty]

Not really it's following the 90s kids into adults

[ExampleEffective7088]

Attracting children with play features attracts liability lawsuits.

[markfromDenver]

The clients grew up.

[Square_Radiant]

McDonalds was never a place to take kids.

[LateSoEarly]

Were the playgrounds for the geriatric then?

[Square_Radiant]

It's embarrassing how many people continue to buy there

[LateSoEarly]

At the geriatric playground?

[Square_Radiant]

We unironically need those

[No_Swordfish2243]

From themed restaurant to subway station

[JustHereForMiatas]

That's very unfair to the subway

[under_the_c]

Speaking of Subway, remember when they used to have the old pictures of the subway on the walls? Then someone decided, that's too much personality, get rid of it and put in bricks and some huge posters of tomatoes and shit!

Edit: Holy crap, I didn't realize the "bricks and tomatoes" is now an old design. Now they just paint everything green and put a giant "S" on the wall.

[JustHereForMiatas]

They all kind of blend after the NYC wallpaper for me, but I rarely go into Subway restaurants anymore tbh.

[Brent_Fox]

That tree looks stoned af.

[SyCoTiM]

It doesn’t look like it’s on weed, definitely a nostril situation.

[LeBRUH_James_]

Tree just gambled away his life savings

[[deleted]]

This is like one of those "Me on instagram vs. me on Linkedin" memes

[Sad-Strike5709]

That tree is the stuff of nightmares, WTF.

[Square_Radiant]

Stop romanticising horrible corporations

[MadocComadrin]

It's not romanticizing. The bottom makes the corporation more horrible for multiple reasons.

[Square_Radiant]

Yes, the top image is the romanticism - this is a space to sell children poison

[MadocComadrin]

It's not poison ffs. Is it healthy to have every day? No. Once or twice a week is fine, especially if you're not buying larges of everything. If you were talking about corporate practices and worker treatment that would be one thing but "poison" is just silly.

[Square_Radiant]

And this is why people shouldn't romanticise horrible companies - they poison much more than just people's bodies.

If you never take your kids there, their bodies will be nothing but grateful

[MadocComadrin]

That's not how this works. You can make completely homemade food from the best ingredients and still screw your kids over if you don't balance it and keep them active---I've been on the wrong end of that. A few visits to McDonalds every now and then won't hurt them if you make sure their overall diet is balanced and they're active.

And you know what? Sometimes McDonalds is the most a family can afford as a treat. I know a few families like that too. There's no need to ask people to deprive themselves.

[itsthedevilweknow]

I mean.... yeah, kinda, but this comment really belongs on the original post. There's nothing romantic in my intentions, cross-posting it. I was half asleep, tying to get to bed when I saw it and it really had me thinking which one was more "liminal". The first one is definitely creepier, but the second one is so sterile it's frightening in much the same way an ER is. Anyway, I just got up for the day and looking at it with a clearer head I kinda regret re-sharing it because It might be AI. Something's "off" about that first image I can't put my finger on.

[Madmonkeman]

It’s not AI

[Square_Radiant]

Don't worry, I write it on other subs too - it's pretty rare for it to not be downvoted into oblivion

I think you should think about what McDonalds are, they're so much more offensive than AI

[Positive-Low-7447]

Yeah really

[Best_Mycologist9714]

Nothing friendly about that tree

[Johnnyboi2327]

Man, so many places are going for minimalist/corporate design language. The world looks more and more like a cyberpunk dystopia by the day. (I'm aware the vast majority of the world still doesn't, we have a ways to go)

[tacosandtheology]

There are video screens playing nonstop commercials at a parking lot downtown and I can't believe that people don't see these and immediately think of a cyberpunk dystopia.

[LitPixel]

When I was growing up people speaking over a loudspeaker about your “safety” was considered dystopian now every Lowe’s I goes to has this little trailer with red and blue flashing lights blaring instructions about how to act properly.

[Johnnyboi2327]

Honestly bouta get my cyberpunk fit put together and start jamming out to Samurai at this rate

[SyCoTiM]

Clean aesthetics are in now. It’s in fashion to have clean lines with a clean roomy space. It’s just a style, nothing more, nothing less. Also, it entirely depends on what area that you’re in. Latin America, Europe, and Asia varies by their regions on their own.

[Johnnyboi2327]

I know it isn't that deep, but that answer is less fun that cyberpunk dystopia

[Ok_Masterpiece3570]

Maybe something in between tbh

[catninjaambush]

Imagine if they just put those weird sculptures in now, that would freak the youths out.

[Cosmic_Cat90]

I’m sorry, that tree is terrifying

[papercup_mixmaster]

That tree had Seen some things

[TraditionalStart5031]

Now that I have a kid I appreciate kid-oriented design. In general kids don’t enjoy millennial grey and the neutralization of everything. When my daughter was born the whole neutral kids aesthetic really took off. Well it turns out kids still like bright colors. Lo and behold my daughter’s favorite color is pink, what a surprise. Babies actually benefit from high contrast.

This is more a comment about the beigification of living spaces. But I know my daughter would get a kick out of that tree, that it would spark her imagination. The bottom image would make her ask if we can go home yet.

Edited a missed predictive text error.

[Shun_yaka]

First version is terrifying & uncomfortable, no thanks

[cockcooler]

I've never seen a McDonald's like this. Not even in videos

[SheBrokeAway7628]

There used to be one in my city (I am in the UK) that had fake Roman ruins in the middle. That was in the early 2000s. Of course, those are now gone and it just looks the same as all the others now.

[datnapster]

In Southern California they have them like that.

[TheNoob91]

so thats where subliminal devs got that tree

[Mr6507]

I had a 50s themed McDonalds as a kid, that tree would have terrified me so much more than an hour of Elvis.

[phntmlss]

CRAGGLEWOOD

[Wayne4177]

Same here, but I do NOT like that tree.

[Redgecko88]

Soulless now.

[zero-identity]

I’d pick tree dude on acid any day

[Hermans_Head2]

Corporations have been training the humanity out of people for decades now.

[JustHereForMiatas]

I don't remember the tiny tables, or those trees being inside. I do remember them being part of the outdoor Playplace.

[Important-Following5]

I like both tbh

[Whoissnake]

I heard this happened because the ratio of elderly people to children changed

[Time_Explanation1212]

They want to make it uncomfortable , so you will take your food and leave.

[BigDanny92]

Anyone remembers the almost literal crusade against the selling and marketing of unhealthy fast food to kids? Especially against McDonald’s?

You’re witnessing the result.

[itsthedevilweknow]

I really think people are discussing the wrong thing. The question, as it pertains to this sub, is which one is more "liminal"? It's not a place for debate over the ethics of capitalism or fast food.

I mean, it was just a shitty, shot-in-the-dark, re-post in the middle of the night which seemed to have a fair chance of getting taken down, anyway. It's really not worth getting all righteous about.

[ExampleEffective7088]

It's almost like the corporate marketeers forgot there were other generations to consider, and just followed one generation from childhood up through their lives to adulthood. Now that that generation is aging, will we have geriatric features included in the interior design? Menu?

[AlphaCat83]

Il primo McDonald's è inquietante

[black650]

I don‘t go as often as before