Twitter Can't Believe This McDonald's Ashtray Throwback
For many fans of McDonald's of yesteryear, a trip to the restaurant elicits many happy memories: Tasty Big Macs, crispy fries, and perhaps playing in the PlayPlace as a child. One feature of McDonald's past that you won't see in restaurants today are the eateries' glass and aluminum ashtrays, each marked with the McDonald's logo (via Newsweek).
According to the LA Times, smoking was banned in all corporate-owned McDonald's locations in 1994. At the time, approximately 2,200 franchise McDonald's had already banned smoking, therefore, as of the 1994 ban, 3,600 out of 9,100 American McDonald's had done away with the ashtrays. At the time, McDonald's served as a big influence on other fast food establishments and set conventional practices for other restaurants. Many saw it as just a matter of time before other fast food eateries followed suit and banned smoking inside their dining rooms. Scott Allmendinger, then-editor of Restaurant Business, saw the ban as smart marketing. "McDonald's looks like it's out front on this issue. And that's all that matters," he said.
Remembering the McDonald's ashtray
Twitter user Amy reminisced about the discontinued ashtrays, posting a photo of one of the amber-tinted items embossed with a yellow-colored McDonald's logo with the caption, "This is what they took from you." Fellow tweeters chimed in, with some sharing their opinions on the smoking ban. "Not even sad. There are few things on this rock more disgusting than the smell of ashtrays or taste of cigarettes. I tolerated it for a long time bc every adult I knew growing up in the 70's & 80's was a smoker," wrote one user. Another user, seeming to be a former McDonald's employee stated, "That's a pretty high class Mickey D's there with glass. I once worked for a manager that had us wipe out these aluminum ash tray's with a wet towel and re-use."
If you're interested in purchasing one of these McDonald's ashtrays as a piece of memorabilia, you're in luck. A glass McDonald's ashtray is available on ebay for about $230, and you can snag an aluminum one for about $25 (via ebay).