McDonald’s is turning Happy Meal boxes into virtual reality goggles in Sweden

McDonald’s Happy Meals usually deliver entertainment in the form of a toy – but a new pilot project is allowing kids to turn those iconic Happy Meal boxes into virtual reality goggles.

Starting this week, the fast food chain will start handing out the boxes at its Swedish locations. The special edition box allows kids to pop out a cut out for the goggles and fold it into a viewer similar to Google Cardboard.

Just like Google’s iteration, the viewer – dubbed Happy Goggles – will allow users to slip their smartphone inside and use virtual reality apps to immerse themselves in real-world experiences and views, or games.

Of course, McDonald’s has created its own virtual reality game for the Swedish project.

The game called “se upp i backen” – which translates to “watch out on the slopes” – aims to teach kids to understand how to be alert on ski hills and avoid obstacles.

The app will be released ahead of the Swedish holiday “Sportlov,” where families usually hit the ski slopes. According to McDonald’s, the app is even endorsed by the Swedish alpine ski team.

A McDonald’s spokesperson told Global News that the promotion is not happening in Canada, but noted that the company will be watching how the Swedish experiment goes over with diners.

But McDonald’s could be onto something with this latest experiment.

Google Cardboard has been incredibly popular. Last month, Google said it shipped over five million viewers since launching the device a year ago, making it the most popular virtual reality headset on the market.

Of course, it helps that it’s made out of cardboard and costs as little as $20 to buy.

McDonalds has been trying to spark a turnaround over the last couple of years after seeing a sharp sales decline. Although the company saw an increase in sales at the end of 2015, perhaps the allure of a virtual reality viewer could spark an increase in Happy Meal sales.