McDonald’s introduced the McDonaldland advertising characters in 1971.
McDonaldland was a fantasy setting created for McDonald’s marketing, populated by characters linked to the restaurant’s products and visual identity. Ronald McDonald appeared alongside figures such as Mayor McCheese, Grimace, and the Hamburglar in commercials and promotional materials.
The campaign gave McDonald’s a connected cast rather than relying on a single mascot. This helped the company build a recognizable children’s brand world across television, restaurants, packaging, and merchandise.
The characters’ designs and roles changed over time, and not every character appeared in every period. The campaign is also sometimes dated to Ronald McDonald’s earlier 1960s debut, but McDonaldland as the broader fictional setting began in 1971. That distinction explains why the mascot and the world have different dates.