Kitty
dolls knocks stuffing out of city's polite image
South China Morning Post. January 28, 2000
BY BARRY PORTER in Singapore
AN adorable little stuffed cat has been using its powers to transform traditionally sedate Singaporeans into ugly, marauding monsters.
Or something like that.
The emergency services were called out another 10 times overnight ahead of yesterday's Hello Kitty doll promotion by fast food chain McDonald's to deal with the latest batch of fighting, fainting and fracas.
It all started innocently.
McDonald's offered six-pair sets of Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel dolls, dressed in wedding garb, each week for six weeks for S$4.50 with Extra Value Meals.
But each Thursday for the past five weeks, queues outside McDonald's 113 outlets have been growing longer and turning uglier during the promotional sales.
This week's queues started forming as early as 5pm on Wednesday with up to 1000 people waiting outside some outlets by the time the doors opened next morning.
Even then, many people who painstakingly queued find the dolls sold out. Some erect tents, most sleep overnight under cardboard or plastic bags, and some cheats have been sending down their maids.
Filipino maid Imelda Caoime, 34, said: ''I don't know why my ma'am likes these cats so much.
''I just want to go home and sleep,'' she told the New Paper.
Tempers started boiling over on New Year's Day when a doctor and a lorry driver got into a fight in a queue.
Over the weeks, numerous other arguments have broken out, some of them violent, typically when queue-jumpers anger those who have been lining up for hours.
In one incident, the glass doors of a store were smashed as a crowd surged.
Incidents of feline frenzy have even triggered a debate in Parliament.
Despite countless complaints, McDonald's plans to sell the dolls for one final week, but at ''centralised, bigger venues'' according to a TV report, not all outlets.