A Culver City ad firm has given Burger King’s crown a royal makeover – and in the process discovered that families want more quality time when they’re eating fast food together.

Pitch Agency redesigned the familiar cardboard headgear, adding jewels and brightening the colors. The redesign is the first for the crowns since Miami’s Burger King Holdings started giving them away more than 30 years ago.

Jon Banks, principal at Pitch, said the project started with a year of research to find out what consumers wanted from a fast-food meal. He was surprised by the findings.

“There’s this misperception that parents want a break for 10 to 15 minutes to eat a meal in peace while their kids are distracted,” Banks said. “That’s not true. Families want to connect and interact and talk together.”

So what did Pitch do? The crown now comes connected to the kids meal box. After making the crown, the kids can take the box apart and do puzzles and play games that are printed on the cardboard.

The games might have questions that kids can’t answer by themselves, so they’ll have to ask older siblings or parents.

“This is an opportunity for the conversations that families are actively seeking,” Banks said.

For burger eaters who aren’t parents but still want to feel like royalty in the restaurant, Banks said the new crown will be available on request without the attached kids meal.

“You can still go in and get a crown, but the idea is to make sure that every kid who orders food gets one automatically, built into the box,” he said.