McDonald’s first introduced Ronald McDonald in television advertising in 1963.
The character was created to give McDonald’s a memorable, child-friendly face on television. Willard Scott, then a local Washington, D.C., television personality, originally played Ronald in an advertisement for a McDonald’s restaurant in the area. The early version of the character had a more improvised appearance than the familiar design that developed later.
Ronald became the central figure in McDonald’s children’s marketing, especially after the company expanded the McDonaldland advertising world in the early 1970s. His appearance, costume, and supporting characters changed over time, but the red-haired clown remained strongly associated with the brand.
A common mix-up is confusing Ronald’s first television appearance with the later national expansion of McDonaldland. Ronald appeared before that fictional world was fully established, and his early advertising role was separate from the later ensemble of characters.